Mono is an open-source implementation of the infrastructure upon which Microsoft's .NET Framework is built. Providing a compatible option with all of the technical features of .NET without the restrictive licensing and prohibitive costs that Microsoft imposes, the Mono project was initiated and co-financed by Ximian Corporation for the development of an open source version of .NET Framework for Linux/Unix and Windows platforms (Mac OS X support will be added).. Mono will allow cross-platform programming and operating of .NET compatible applications. Experts see the presence of a Unix-compatible version as decisive for the success of .NET. Mono Kick Start is a practical introduction to Mono and .NET compatible application programming with Mono. After a classically structured crash-course on the C# language and Mono's own compiler, the authors reach down deeper to subjects like threads, network programming, security, database interaction, XML, and more. A comprehensive practical section shows you how to set up Web applications with Mono, how GUIs can be programmed using GTK, and how applications written with .NET can be operated in the Mono framework.