Editing Miguel de Icaza (section)

===GNOME, Ximian, Xamarin and Mono===
De Icaza started the [[GNOME]] project with Federico Mena in August 1997 to create a completely free desktop environment and component model for [[Linux]] and other [[Unix-like]] operating systems.<ref>{{cite book|title=Practical Mono|first=Mark|last=Mamone|page=7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YpIAry7MNCcC&q=Federico+Mena|publisher=Apress|year=2005|isbn=978-1-59059-548-0}}</ref> He also created the GNOME spreadsheet program, [[Gnumeric]].

In 1999, de Icaza, along with [[Nat Friedman]], co-founded Helix Code, a GNOME-oriented free software company that employed a large number of other GNOME hackers. In 2001, Helix Code, later renamed [[Ximian]], announced the [[Mono (software)|Mono]] Project, to be led by de Icaza, with the goal to implement [[Microsoft]]'s new [[.NET Framework|.NET]] development platform on [[Linux]] and [[Unix-like]] platforms. In August 2003, Ximian was acquired by [[Novell]]. There, de Icaza was [[Vice president|Vice President]] of Developer Platform.

In May 2011, de Icaza started [[Xamarin]] to replace MonoTouch and Mono for [[Android (operating system)|Android]] after Novell was bought by [[Attachmate]] and the projects were abandoned. Shortly afterwards, Xamarin and Novell reached an agreement where Xamarin took over the development and sales of these products.<ref>Friedman, Nat. (2011-07-18) [http://blog.xamarin.com/2011/07/18/first-press-release/ Xamarin mobile products available now! | Xamarin Blog] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111110234152/http://blog.xamarin.com/2011/07/18/first-press-release/ |date=2011-11-10 }}. Blog.xamarin.com. Retrieved on 2013-09-19.</ref>

In February 2016, Xamarin announced being acquired by Microsoft.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/xamarin/|title=Xamarin Blog|website=Xamarin Blog}}</ref> One month later at the Microsoft Build conference, it was announced that the Mono Project would be [[Software relicensing|relicensed]] to MIT, Visual Studio would include Xamarin (even the free versions) without restrictions, and Xamarin SDKs would be opensourced.<ref name="auto"/>