As now #29 is done and we have a working build on Ubuntu 20.04 (with the old editor and without Git integration), the first phase of taking over MonoDevelop might be considered done,

• Grouped a few developers around the fork.
• Revived the old editor to fill in the gaps.
• Amazingly integrated with the 8.x branch so many fixes contributed earlier by Microsoft can still be used.

The next phase I think is to ship new releases to end users (as not everyone is supposed to build from the source code). That yields a list of possible tasks below,

Supported Platform Expansion

Expand the CI platforms (right now Ubuntu 20.04) to a richer set (all major Linux distributions and their active LTS versions). That can be ambitious, but we can rule out certain less popular distributions or older versions if technical difficulty requires too much effort.

We can create new issues (probably each tracks an OS version) and pull requests so that everyone wanting to participate can pick up one or two.

Version Bump

Maybe we should create a new branch for future development and call it version 9.

Taking Over More MonoDevelop Assets

Now the source code takeover is done, and we have a foundation to work on. I think next is to take over more assets from Microsoft in order to prepare a new release.

• Set a clear scope to ship MonoDevelop 9 only for Linux. Ignore Windows/macOS builds at least in the near future.
• Contact Microsoft to see if they can transfer the MonoDevelop homepage ownership, as well as Linux packaging infrastructure.
  • If such assets can be transferred in any suitable way, then MonoDevelop is revived directly and new releases can come smoothly. We improve the CI/CD pipeline to build/pack for supported platforms and ship to end users as version 7/8 to version 9 upgrade.
  • If the transfer is not possible, then time to find another suitable brand and recreate the packaging infrastructure.

Notes

This plan focuses on packaging, branding, and possible Microsoft transfer. What it does not cover is all other features and bug fixes that the small group of developers can contribute in parallel.

We might ship some new features,

• Language Server Protocol support
• builtin .NET Core debugger
• GtkSharp3
• .NET 5 based MonoDevelop

and some bug fixes (like #30 ) to make a richer version 9 release, but even without such a new release based on the current code base can be a major upgrade for those users on version 7.

With more .NET Core features/bug fixes added, we can promote this tool as MonoDevelop for .NET Core/.NET 5/.NET 6, which is still easier than promoting a new brand.