How to Best Run a WPF C# App on macOS and Linux?

Question

How to Best Run a WPF C# App on macOS and Linux?

MARCIN SZOLKE SCHOLKE 0

Hi all,

I’ve built a Windows desktop application using WPF in C# (with Visual Studio). Now I’d like to make it available for macOS and Linux users as well.

I know WPF is Windows-only, but I’m wondering:

What’s the best way to run or port a WPF app on macOS/Linux?

Should I rewrite it in .NET MAUI, Avalonia, or something else?

Any success stories or lessons learned from people who have done this?

Performance, native look, and ease of development matter a lot in my case. Would appreciate any tips or recommendations

Thanks in advance,

Marcin Szolke

https://lov111vol.com/author

1 answer

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Answer 1

Yes, it's possible to run WPF applications on Mac with little to no code changes using Avalonia XPF. This is possible thanks to Microsoft making WPF open-source and using a permissive license.

The common steps are as follows:

Add a NuGet.config We can ship Avalonia XPF as a NuGet package, which requires adding our private nuget feeds to gain access. We'll do this by creating a NuGet.config file at the root of our solution. It'll include the following:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 
   <configuration> 
   <packageSources>   
   <clear />    
   <add key="api.nuget.org" value="https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json" />  
    <add key="xpf" value="https://xpf-nuget-feed.avaloniaui.net/v3/index.json" />             <add key="avalonia-nightly" value="https://nuget-feed-all.avaloniaui.net/v3/index.json" />
   </packageSources>
   <packageSourceCredentials>    
   <xpf> 
      <add key="Username" value="license" />
      <add key="ClearTextPassword" value="<YOUR_LICENSE_KEY>" />
   </xpf>
   </packageSourceCredentials> 
   </configuration>

Load the solution and replace the project SDK with Avalonia XPF For example: <Project Sdk="Xpf.Sdk/1.0.1-cibuild001124">
Update the TargetFramework Avalonia XPF requires WPF apps to target NET6 or above. For this reason, we'll update the apps Target Framework to the latest NET8 runtime. <TargetFramework>net8.0</TargetFramework>
Add the license key The last change is to add our license key to the csproj for the executable.

<ItemGroup> 
    <RuntimeHostConfigurationOption Include="AvaloniaUI.Xpf.LicenseKey" Value="<YOUR_LICENSE_KEY>" />
</ItemGroup>

For more information, please check: https://avaloniaui.net/blog/wpf-on-mac

To run a WPF app on Linux, you can check : A developers guide to running WPF apps on Linux with .NET Core.

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How to Best Run a WPF C# App on macOS and Linux?

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