The Avalonia team has released the first preview of their backend for .NET MAUI, enabling developers to deploy MAUI applications to Linux and WebAssembly platforms. This advancement builds on six months of development and represents a significant step toward cross-platform consistency, offering flexibility in choosing between native OS controls or a consistent drawn UI experience.

Getting started requires just four steps: create a .NET MAUI app, add the Avalonia.Controls.Maui.Desktop NuGet, include the net11.0 target framework, and call UseAvaloniaApp in the MauiBuilder. The framework handles bootstrapping automatically, though developers can extend or disable the source generator for full control.

The team has thoroughly tested the backend by porting complex applications like AlohaAI and MyConference, validating parity with native implementations while maintaining consistent appearance across platforms. Current limitations are being addressed through ongoing development of Maui.Essentials on Avalonia and plans for WinUI interoperability.