A few days ago I though G would buy Jetbrains in the coming months. Now...
Microsoft Acquires Xamarin
211–220 of 405 posts
Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin
#212I love .net, but De Icaza is a tremendous liability for Microsoft
Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if it means a transition to Visual Studio Code at some point. I doubt it would happen soon, but I feel like there's a lot more support behind that IDE than MonoDevelop.
Visual Studio Code is an entirely different animal, built with JavaScript on top of node.js (like Atom). MonoDevelop is a clone of Visual Studio written in C# which isn't even remotely compatible with the mis-named Visual Studio Code. If they want to port MonoDevelop to Visual Studio Code, they would have to re-write all the features from scratch. At this point they might as well re-write Visual Studio to node.js and…
It's weird to bring up slowness when VSCode is much more amenable for use on machines with meager specs than MonoDevelop is. Why do you care what language your editor is written in unless you're submitting patches, anyway?
Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin
#214Scary. Xamarin sells tools to support multi-platform app development. Microsoft would want that only to the extent that it assisted migration to Microsoft platforms. Not away from them.
Can't speak for what they intend to do, but current moves by Microsoft seem to be very much on the contrary direction of assisting migration or locking down existing citizens of their platform: Visual Studio Code, Roslyn (C# compiler), TypeScript, those are all cross-plaftorm. Not to mention the ones that are getting there, like ChakraCore (JS Engine).
Still having a hard time understanding the new Microsoft, but so far really seems like a 180" from the Microsoft of 10 years or so ago.
Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin
#215I'm honestly amazed that it took this long. I've tried Xamarin before to make iOS apps but couldn't justify paying an ongoing subscription for what is basically a hobby project. I'd love it if MS expanded the "Starter Edition" to allow more fully fledged apps - they could be seriously competitive with Xcode.
I truly believe that it would've happened sooner, but Microsoft needed to wait until it had built up some degree of confidence among developers that the whole "new Microsoft" thing is for real. If they'd done it three years ago, everyone would've panicked, assumed that things like e.g. .NET on Linux were dead, and just written off Xamarin's offerings immediately. Now I think a lot of people are at least cautiously op…
We're still talking about the Microsoft that's less than a year away from releasing Windows 10 and DX12. "New Microsoft" indeed.
Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
It worries me more that Microsoft has a track record of abandoning developer tools for the next shiny thing.
Same here. I wouldn't be surprised if Xamarin died slowly.
That makes no sense. It's pretty clear that .NET is Microsoft's future, and Xamarin extends the reach of .NET.
Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
Xamarin actually works quite well. Microsoft will definitely bring in more quality as they have huge amounts of resources not only in cash but in talented people. This news is important because it solidifies the future of the .Net ecosystem in iOS, OSX, Android, Linux and Windows. The Xamarin team has been doing a great job, but I am pretty sure that with Microsoft backing them they'll do a way better job.
"Works quite well" is a phrase I've never used with Xamarin. I stopped using it about a year ago for two reasons: (1) _every_single_release_ would break my apps and would then require spending inordinate amounts of time trying to get things building again, and (2) I could no longer justify paying for the professional edition just to be able to use Visual Studio on my hobby projects. I am very much hoping that both of…
Both points are endemic of smaller and newer companies (does xamarin still qualify?), poor legacy and deprecation strategies / product roadmap, bad pricing structure. I think Microsoft can aid in both categories.
Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin
#218Scary. Xamarin sells tools to support multi-platform app development. Microsoft would want that only to the extent that it assisted migration to Microsoft platforms. Not away from them.
You're thinking of old Microsoft. New Microsoft is all about Azure, the walled gardens of windows is slowly being left behind. Take a look at .NET Core.
Take a look at DX12, WPF, etc. The walled garden is still there and getting worse, they're just sacrificing their other markets.
Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
Despite that, Visual Studio Code is pretty awesome though.
I agree, but I wish they had chosen another platform to build it on. Maybe when we finally have a universal bytecode for the web and ECMAScript 6 then developing on it will be less painful. Let us hope.
The vscode source is very well "layered". It's not totally inconceivable that the vscode folks or some other team take it and allow you to choose at build time whether to target it's current DOM-backed UI or one backed by more "native" drawing routines and widgets.
Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin
#220Miguel finally gets his job at Microsoft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Icaza#Early_software... Congrats!
Kinda funny how things work out.
Back when MS broadcasted OSX/nix compatibility for Visual Studio I felt it necessary to comment that .NET development has been supported in OSX/nix for over a decade.
In short, Miguel De Icaza should be awarded a medal from MS for his heroic effort in developing the Mono platform and tooling; in spite of the constant threat of legal action from Microsoft for 'patent infringement' of their supposedly 'open' (ie ECMA) standard languages and VM.
Hopefully, he finally receives public recognition and reward for all his hard work.