An update to the Mono open-source software development project brings programmers one step closer to writing Microsoft .Net applications for Linux and Unix.

Microsoft has open sourced a .NET 5 C# Language Extension for SQL Server, allowing developers to work with relational data in the company's flagship programming language.

This is a bold move that will attempt to cement .Net, C#, and Visual Studio as the dominant development platform across Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, and Mac -- and, well, it might just work.