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Microsoft Acquires Xamarin

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Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin

#221

Post by carussell »

legomaster wrote: post #79
Yuioup wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

OmniSharp powered intellisense and other features are easy enough to stick in VS Code. It's easier to package and deploy than MonoDevelop. Much easier (at least for me) to write extensions for VS Code. I see it as a win-win. MonoDevelop has always been a frustrating experience for me. While VS Code isn't perfect, I'm less frustrated using it than MonoDevelop.

> OmniSharp powered intellisense and other features are easy enough to stick in VS Code

Already shipping with it. See:

1. https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/3029

2. https://github.com/OmniSharp/omnisharp-vscode

Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin

#222

Post by revelation »

ZenoArrow wrote: post #206
JBReefer wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visual Studio Code doesn't do an eighth of what VS 2015 does. VS 2015 on Linux with a full CLR would be huge. Think about the opportunities for existing enterprise programmers, alone.

It would be great to use Visual Studio on other platforms, but it's unlikely to happen any time soon (unless Microsoft have been working on it in secret). Visual Studio is a Win32 application, we haven't even seen a 64-bit version of it yet, I'd expect to see Visual Studio become a 64-bit WPF application before it becomes cross-platform.

Visual Studio already uses WPF where it matters (the actual editor is WPF, I think, among other things).

That said, the core and infrastructure and all the stuff that makes it run is still a radioactive COM wasteland, and from experience trying to write an extension once, you can tell..

Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin

#223

Post by Coincoin »

Sir_Substance wrote: post #86
littlegreenb18 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't apply here. This is a strategic purchase for Microsoft. They have no competing technology. That was in reference to standards. Microsoft wanted to turn open standards into proprietary standards to drive people toward their products.

...Xamarin studio isn't a competitor to Visual Studio? That's all I know that Xamarin makes, so I think this article is going a bit over my head, but it'll be a shame if I suddenly need a Microsoft account to use it. I do like diversity in my language tooling.

Xamarin is not about Xamarin Studio. It's about the iOS and Android runtimes. Thanks to its ability to take full advantage of AOT compilation, the performance difference is staggering compared to Mono. Also it needs to JIT in less situations, which is a big plus on iOS since JITing is prohibited on that platform "for security reasons".

Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin

#224

Post by assocguilt »

Sir_Substance wrote: post #86
littlegreenb18 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't apply here. This is a strategic purchase for Microsoft. They have no competing technology. That was in reference to standards. Microsoft wanted to turn open standards into proprietary standards to drive people toward their products.

...Xamarin studio isn't a competitor to Visual Studio? That's all I know that Xamarin makes, so I think this article is going a bit over my head, but it'll be a shame if I suddenly need a Microsoft account to use it. I do like diversity in my language tooling.

Ask them about Alan Truing - he kept his work secret so should have had his career ruined by the likes of you.

Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin

#225

Post by yareally »

cm2187 wrote: post #203
snoman wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VS integration was recently re-written and re-released. I still use XS, but I hear the VS integration is now pretty solid.

I meant as part of the main distribution

It's a very prominent installation option in Visual Studio 2015 that you can't miss. If you mean something else, please clarify.

Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin

#227

Post by junto »

Scarbutt wrote: post #162
solutionyogi wrote: post #10

As someone who works in .NET ecosystem, this is HUGE. I think there is huge synergy [1] to be exploited by combining Xamarin's team with language/compiler design/visual studio team. I think MS is extremely well positioned to be a leading development platform across desktop/web/mobile in the enterprise space with this acquisition. [1] Never thought I would ever use that word in a comment.

Very HUGE, now microsoft can put ads on xamarin software!

Have you ever seen an advert in any of their developer tools? Or are you just being flippant?

Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin

#228

Post by craigvn »

nacs wrote: post #93
JBReefer wrote: post #16

This is giant news for the .NET ecosystem. It means that MS is serious about their push into Mobile and Linux, and that .NET developers aren't going to have to work with Xamarin's ever-so-slightly-behind libraries anymore. It also means that MS now produces an IDE on Linux, which is a crazy change from 10 years ago.

> It means that MS is serious about their push into Mobile and Linux Mobile OK but Linux? Currently on the HN frontpage theres an article about how Skype for Linux hasn't been updated for years and "is unable to join calls": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11165568

Microsoft is a very big company. Just because devtools division is doing one thing doesn't mean the Skype team has the same priorities. I wouldn't even assume that half the product teams in MS are using MS dev tools to build their product.

Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin

#229

Post by junto »

alkonaut wrote: post #190
nacs wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It means that MS is serious about their push into Mobile and Linux Mobile OK but Linux? Currently on the HN frontpage theres an article about how Skype for Linux hasn't been updated for years and "is unable to join calls": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11165568

They want devs to write for Linux because they are a services company who make money from Azure VMs including those that run Linux. They don't want end users to run Linux desktop. So devtools/languages/cloud divisions inside Microsoft like Linux. Those in ms who deal with end user applications (home users in this case, as ms push Lync to business) probably see little point in investing in development in Skype for Lin…

This. MS want .Net to run on all platforms. Give developers awesome tooling for free. Let them build. When they deploy, pay for Azure. It has an ongoing usage cost. Xamarin is just part of their tooling.

Re: Microsoft Acquires Xamarin

#230

Post by junto »

nelp wrote: post #77
jonsmit wrote: post #38

How much? I know it's undisclosed but it would be very interesting. Hopefully someone leaks it. The rumor was Miguel told MS to "F*#K Off" when MS presented him with an offer many years ago. This lead to CoreCLR being open sourced and Visual Studio Code being built. I'd like to know if by undermining parts of Xamarins business they were able to get them at substantial discount - especially with the tech industry down…

Rumor is just south of $300 Million. A nice chunk of change...but Xamarin had the gas and customers to head much higher valuations. Congrats to all involved.

You'd think that most of those customers are most likely to already be MS customers though at a guess.
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