Novell’s Mono project has updated Mono Tools to help developers debug applications targeting Linux, Mac OS and Unix from Microsoft’s Visual Studio.

Mono Tools for Visual Studio 2.0 shipped last week. It was created to offer developers a way to deploy and test applications within all current versions of Visual Studio, and to isolate incompatibilities between Mono and the .NET Framework.

Version 1.0 came out in late November 2009, and was focused on SUSE Linux, which is the version of Linux offered by Novell.

With version 2.0, the tools can be used for developing, deploying and debugging Mac and Windows applications, said Mono product manager Joseph Hill. Also, its Linux support was broadened to include Red Hat.

“A developer can install Mono on Windows and do most or all of their porting work for other OSes there,” Hill said.

Other changes include a new debugger engine that runs on non-x86 hardware architectures such as PowerPC and s390x mainframes. Deployment has been streamlined by compressing resources and only updating files that have changed between builds.

Mono Tools is available under an individual license for US$99, an enterprise (one developer per organization) license for $245, or a five-developer pack with a commercial license to redistribute Mono for $2,499.