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The Mono project, which produces an open source implementation of the .NET runtime, has released version 2.8. The update brings full support for version 4.0 of the C# programming language, substantial improvements to the optional LLVM-based Mono backend, and a new garbage collection implementation that is more efficient.

Mono was originally created to accelerate Linux application development and enable Windows developers to bring some of their existing code and skills to the Linux platform. The focus of the project has expanded in recent years as Novell has explored ways to monetize the underlying technology. Mono is increasingly viewed as a compelling tool for supporting rich embedded scripting in applications and bringing C# to environments where it wouldn't otherwise run.

Mono is used in a number of well-known applications, including the Second Life client and the Unity game development suite. Novell also offers its own Mono-based commercial development tools for building native iPhone and Android applications with C#.

The Mono developers initially supplied a preview of C# 4.0 in Mono 2.6, but it is now feature-complete in 2.8 and has consequently graduated to fully-supported status. Mono's standard "mcs" C# compiler will now target 4.0 by default. Some noteworthy C# 4.0 features offered by Mono include dynamic binding and named arguments.