Suggested controls for an open source Windows Forms app?

Question

Suppose I wanted to create an open source Windows Forms project written in .NET. I am pretty well-established in my opinion that the System.Windows.Forms suck big time. I love Developer Express' controls, but they cost an arm and a leg and I don't see how their per-developer licensing would make it possible to use them on an open source project.

What options are there for third-party Windows Forms controls to be used in an open source project? I don't care whether the controls themselves are open source - just that they have good functionality and look good.

Answer 1

any 3rd party controls are for example GTK and QT. Don't know the legal aspect using it in open source software

Answer 2

I would recommend you to take a look at the following component vendors: devcomponents, krypton toolkit, purecomponents, viblend, divelement. All of these have a lot of built-in features and they are relatively cheap.

Answer 3

DockPanel Suite is pretty good for building nice dockable UI

Answer 4

IMO the standard Winforms controls are good enough for creating standard-looking Windows applications. But, if that's not enough for you, have you considered switching to WPF?

Answer 5

If you want an open source project, you will need open source controls. You should also make certain your application builds under open source tools, such as SharpDevelop. Yes, you will give up some features (and depending on what it is, maybe a lot of features) but creating open source often means sacrificing convenience for openness.

Your options are, build your own controls that do what you want, use the standard controls, or use the rather slim set of open source controls already out there. There is really no way around that, because any open source project won't be open source if it requires proprietary controls.