[Question] Official stance on community contributions about Linux-support

[Lemon73-Computing]

Seeing that most Linux support–related issues have been closed, I assume that the MAUI team does not plan to officially support Linux.
So I have one question:

If the community were to develop Linux support for MAUI, would there be a possibility for it to be merged into the main repository?

In addition, there is a discussion that has received over 500 upvotes and more than 700 👍 reactions, which suggests that there is strong support from the community. Are you willing to accept contributions from the community in this area?

See also: https://github.com/dotnet/maui/issues?q=label%3Aplatform%2Flinux

[davidortinau]

Developing a Linux backend of layout and controls for .NET MAUI is not on our roadmap. We recognize the interest and value of this to the product and developer experience, and welcome contributions that would enable this experience.

In considering future backends, @PureWeen prototyped developing backends in their own repository. This is the pattern we'd like to follow and evolve. https://github.com/PureWeen/maui.wpf

[jfversluis]

In continuation of what David says above, there is already a somewhat progressed version, active, for Linux by one of our team members @jsuarezruiz right here: https://github.com/jsuarezruiz/maui-linux

[Lemon73-Computing]

Developing a Linux backend of layout and controls for .NET MAUI is not on our roadmap. We recognize the interest and value of this to the product and developer experience, and welcome contributions that would enable this experience.

In considering future backends, @PureWeen prototyped developing backends in their own repository. This is the pattern we'd like to follow and evolve. https://github.com/PureWeen/maui.wpf

This is my first time hearing about maui.wpf, thank you for pointing it out.

In continuation of what David says above, there is already a somewhat progressed version, active, for Linux by one of our team members @jsuarezruiz right here: https://github.com/jsuarezruiz/maui-linux

I am familiar with maui-linux (as I am one of its contributors), and I was wondering: once it reaches a production-ready stage, is there any chance it could be merged into the main project (here)?

[giuseppenovielli]

Hi everyone,
If I may suggest, it might be more useful to add web support using Blazor web assembly.
If a .NET MAUI XAML app runs in the browser, it can be used on any device, even covering operating systems and devices that are currently unsupported, such as Linux, WPF, HarmonyOS, etc.

Running .NET MAUI apps in the browser guarantees execution on any device, without providing official support. All that's needed is for the OS to be able to run a browser, and you're done.

[nicomen]

I thought MAUI was a serious project that would replace stuff like UWP, Xamarin and be truly cross-platform. I guess UNO or Avalonia are the real alternatives if you are so unfortunate to be stuck developing with Microsoft software :-/

[mattleibow]

Wanted to let folks on this thread know there's now something concrete to try. Over in dotnet/maui-labs we've been building experimental platform backends, including a GTK4 backend for Linux and a native macOS AppKit backend (macOS without Mac Catalyst). Both also ship a BlazorWebView host — via WebKitGTK on Linux and WKWebView on macOS — so the "run your .NET business logic natively + a Blazor UI in a native WebView" scenario works on each.

Linux (GTK4) — README + setup:

• Microsoft.Maui.Platforms.Linux.Gtk4 — the backend
• Microsoft.Maui.Platforms.Linux.Gtk4.BlazorWebView — BlazorWebView on WebKitGTK
• Microsoft.Maui.Platforms.Linux.Gtk4.Essentials — Essentials APIs
• Microsoft.Maui.Platforms.Linux.Gtk4.Templates — dotnet new templates

macOS (AppKit) — README + setup:

• Microsoft.Maui.Platforms.MacOS — the backend
• Microsoft.Maui.Platforms.MacOS.BlazorWebView — BlazorWebView on WKWebView
• Microsoft.Maui.Platforms.MacOS.Essentials — Essentials APIs

All published as 0.1.0-preview — prerelease, so add --prerelease when installing.

Status — please read before building on it:

• These backends are experimental.
• They are not supported — explicitly not covered by the .NET MAUI Support Policy, with no support commitment of any kind (no SLAs, no security-fix guarantees, no compatibility guarantees).
• There is no roadmap to make them officially supported platforms. Linux and macOS are not announced as supported .NET MAUI targets, and nothing here should be read as a plan or commitment to do so.
• APIs may change or break at any time, and a backend could be discontinued.

Building these has also been a good exercise of the extensibility work tracked in #34099 — the places MAUI can stop actively preventing third-party platforms, without the team having to own or officially support them.

Give the experimental backends a try, file issues in maui-labs, and let us know what's working and what's missing — with the understanding above about where things stand.