IIRC Mono uses libwine to provide a .Net Winforms API.
Wine also provides a DirectX 9 replacement. That is AIUI how some of the
proprietary virtualization solutions provide virtual 3D graphics (they hack
the Wine source to work with a proprietary interface provided by the virtual
machine as opposed to simulating 3D hardware).
Oracle have MySQL in direct competition with Microsoft SQL Server
http://www.oracle.com/us/products/mysql/index.htm
Last I saw of it (over 11 years ago) Microsoft SQL Server was a sorry
inadequate beast. Ask your professors if they'll mark the same assignments /
class work done in 'Oracle's MySQL.' :-)
Also ask them if they'll accept HTML5 (Canvas etc.), SVG and Javascript
instead of Flash for your multimedia. I helped out a local University two or
three years ago and their 'experience year' students (i.e. after the first
two years of their course) in the same office couldn't do anything in
Photoshop I couldn't in GIMP and I'm no GIMP expert.
With all of these things getting a checklist of what you're supposed to learn
and be able to demonstrate at the end of the course will help people in the
free software community recommend the right free solution for your needs.
