2d ago

Best C# IDE/Compiler for Linux?

Mono appears to be dead. I enjoy making life hard so I dont use windows. I am trying to learn very simple c# but am having trouble gettung visual studio to run anything on linux (debian/mint). It wont even run with dotnet in the terminal either. I dont really like all the features in vs either, i just want simple.

For reference im learning with the yellow book by rob miles. I want to learn the old way, not using a bunch of shiny helping tools (i never feel i really learn with those and it stunts my growth).

32 comments

Depending on your distro, you may have the .NET SDK in your packages already. Debian doesn't have it. I'm not sure about Mint. I use Ubuntu MATE and .NET 8 is available. Check with this:
apt search dotnet-sdk
If you see something like dotnet-sdk-8.0 in the list, this will install everything you need:
sudo apt install dotnet-sdk-8.0
If it's not available in the package repo, it's not difficult to install manually. Follow the instructions here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/install/linux?WT.mc_id=dotnet-35129-website#manual-installation
For my development environment, I use VS Code with the following extensions:
C# Dev Kit (Microsoft) -- This provides the full development experience: intellisense, debugger, project management, etc.
C# Extensions (JosKreativ) -- This provides handy helpers for scaffolding classes and other module types.
Todo Tree (Gruntfuggly) -- Locates TODO comments in your code and displays them in a dedicated tree view.
Once you've installed the SDK along with VS Code and the associated extensions, getting started is as easy as:

dotnet new console -o HelloWorld cd HelloWorld code .
- Clarification for Debian!
  I recently installed on Debian 13 as well and these are the instructions I followed: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/install/linux-debian?tabs=dotnet8
  The instructions say Debian 12, but they do work on Debian 13, FWIW.
https://consulo.io/ (Basically a liberated jetbrains intellij/rider thing)
.NET/C# is fully platform agnostic and Linux is a great host system for development in C#. In fact a lot of software developed in C# (basically all of the cloud software) is hosted on Linux systems. As others pointed out Rider and VS Code are a very good choice on Linux.
Jetbrains Rider free for personal use. You must use .net (core) on Linux, it works like a charm. Visual studio code is fine too but you need tons of plugins to have an IDE experience in .Net. You might have a problem with your .net installation id you can’t compile a simple program. How did you install .net? From microsoft’s ppa?
- Only like 3 plugins are necessary on VSCode for C#/.NET. I use it every day at work. I use just as many plugins, if not more when I write JS/TS.
  I’ve heard Rider is a good experience but I’ve never tried it.
  What I really want is better support for the language in Neovim plugins….
  
  For what it's worth, Rider has an excellent vim emulator plugin.
- Yes, from the ms walk through which was actually decently written. I just think vs is too confusing for me right now, I only want to learn simple code first before building a project
  
  To clarify things. Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code are two different things. Visual Studio is a full blown IDE intended to be run on Windows. Visual Studio Code is a glorified text editor out of the box that has plugins that help with coding in other languages like C#. On Linux you will want VS Code.
  
  You don’t need to use vscode, any text editor is fine. Try to follow the getting started tutorial on microsoft’s website to see if your dotnet configuration is correctly installed. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/get-started
VS Code runs flawlessly on Linux, as does dotnet the compiler/runtime.
C# is a fine language, and you can easily upgrade to F#, if adventurous.
I use nvim with omnisharp-roslyn myself, which doesn't work as reliably, but I'm used to Vim, so meh.
If you want simple: Visual Studio Code. If you want fancy: Rider. That being said, Rider, I find, tends to work better out of the box.
VSCode probably? I use Mint myself, but I don't do C#. I know IntelliJ, VSCode, and Eclipse all work fine, I just don't know what's best for C#. I'm surprised Visual Studio doesn't work.
I really would not recommend specializing in C# at this point in computing history. You can do what you want obviously, but Python is much more likely to be what you want. C++ or Java might be okay if you want a job and are okay with a little bit dated / not ideal languages, or you could learn one of the proliferation of niche backend Linuxy languages, but C# has most of the drawbacks of C++ and Java without having even their relative level of popularity.
IDK what issue you're having with VSCode, but I think installing the .NET SDK and then using dotnet by hand from the command line, to test the install, might be a good precursor to getting it working in VSCode. But IDK why you would endeavor to do this in the first place.
- What are you talking about? C# is massively popular, especially with corporations and government. If someone wants to get a job writing software, they won't go wrong learning C#.
  Python is great for data evaluations and scripting. There's nothing wrong with learning it, or any other language for that matter... including Java, C, or C++
  
  C# represents about 12% of the jobs out there.
  https://www.devjobsscanner.com/blog/top-8-most-demanded-programming-languages/
  It's not unpopular, but it's definitely not "massively" popular anymore. Different languages have different strengths and weaknesses, but C# has a few more weaknesses than most. In my opinion. Yes, there's nothing wrong with learning any particular language you want to learn (and I'm a little surprised to see C++ has fallen significantly lower than C#, sure, fair enough). I'm just struggling to see an upside for learning it in the modern day (and now knowing more about what this person's goal is I feel even more strongly that C# is the wrong answer for them. In my opinion.)
- I was going to try python, but I'd eventually like to learn unity as well so i decided on c#. Plus I felt python was too new and would skip a lot of core programming skills id just like to know. Im not super interested in doing it the new way with all the helpers, or I wont feel like I learned anything. I wanted to learn 20 years ago but never got into it, so I just feel like starting at the very bottom. Makes no sense I know.
  I do have the .net sdk and it seems to try to compile a simple program, it just throws errors even on an example program that shouldn't have any. Im sure its something dumb.
  
  Plus I felt python was too new and would skip a lot of core programming skills id just like to know
  Python was first released in the '90s. It's older than C#.
  That said I consider Python to be a garbage language. "Easy" to use for trivial things, a pain in the ass if you have more than 500 lines of code. The lack of strict typing makes even the most trivial of refactoring an all day task.
  
  Plus I felt python was too new and would skip a lot of core programming skills id just like to know. Im not super interested in doing it the new way with all the helpers, or I wont feel like I learned anything.
  Okay, you definitely want to learn C then. C# and C++ both add a ton of helpers. C# has a massive runtime environment that's opaque and a little bit weird, and C++ has a massive compile-time environment that's opaque and very weird. It's sort of pick your poison. If you learn C and get skilled with it, you'll be well set up for understanding what is actually going on and having strong fundamentals that will set you up well for whatever higher-level language you want to learn in the future.
  Put another way: C# will hide just as many of the fundamentals and hardcore details from you as python will, it'll just do it in a weird and counterintuitive fashion that will make it more confusing and with more weird C#-specific details.
  I'd eventually like to learn unity as well so i decided on c#
  I would actually just cut out the middleman and start with the Unity editor then. It actually might be a really good introduction to the nature of programming in general without throwing a bunch of extra nonsense at you, and in a really motivating format.
  I do have the .net sdk and it seems to try to compile a simple program, it just throws errors even on an example program that shouldn't have any. Im sure its something dumb.
  What's the program and what's the error? I'm happy to help if something jumps out at me. I'm voicing my opinion otherwise on what might be better ways to attack this all in general, but I'm sure me or people here can help sort out the issues if you really want to take this approach and you're just getting stuck on something simple.

32 comments