We are developing an open source and free large scale database driven web application. For this project, we have already chosen PostgreSQL as database platform and have started the database work.
We have been using Microsoft technologies for a while and are really impressed with the integration of many things inside a single box. With Visual Studio and it very easy to get it working.
For our new project, we do not want our customers forced to pay for a Windows Server license and thus are looking for a new technology, similar ASP.NET (may be better or worse) that would enable a license free deployment on the client site.
In addition to the web technology requirement, we would ideally like an IDE with the web technology that offers integration between the IDE and the OS & Servers (web server, debugger, etc...) like Visual Studio does. The IDE can be commercial or free.
Ideally we would like to stay with ASP.NET and be "free" at the same time.
We are not considering "Java" for the project because of Oracle threat. We have also considered Mono but are afraid of using it in the production environment.
Have you consider still working on .NET and deploying your application with Mono?
That way:
You could even stop using Visual Studio and start using MonoDevelop instead, and you get to keep your developers team on its current language preference: C#+VB.NET+ASP.NET