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Things have really changed at Microsoft

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I've recently taken a look at Microsoft's development tools, and what they now offer is nothing short of astonishing. Gone are the days of Steve Balmer's closed minded "Linux is a cancer" view. No, Microsoft are now embracing the open source movement. Last night I was able to install the ASP.NET Core SDK and runtime on my Ubuntu system, and get a .NET web app up and running in minutes. Visual Studio Code is open source, available on Github, and runs on Ubuntu. And the documentation for all this stuff is absolutely amazing.
I haven't had a great opinion of Microsoft in the past, but they are really looking very progressive now. Must say, it's a good strategy for them. Kudos MS!
 
Hadron said:
I'll believe the change is complete when they release a Linux build of Office.

Which I expect to happen a week before Apple make iMessage cross-platform.
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Yeah, maybe I'm a bit naive here, but I tend to get excited about things like this.
A more cynical colleague countered my exuberance by telling me that MS are just luring us in, and once captured, will then proceed to lock the doors.
At least Apple are more honest about locking their 'loyal' customers in, and don't even pretend to make open systems.
 
I've got to admit, perhaps because I've always been somewhat heterogeneous in my devices, I've never really felt that I've lacked anything I'd actually want by locking myself into a particular "ecosystem".
 
It's the success of open source that's made Microsoft want a slice of the pie.
I've pretty much abandoned Windows in favour of Linux (Ubuntu, Mint, Manjaro and PCLinuxOS)
Several distros depending on what works best on each PC/Laptop. My Wife is 100% Linux now (including Android tablet).
And yes, Visual Studio is a great piece of software, just overkill for a lot of applications though.
 
lunatic59 said:
For the average user, sure. I find that they have an up-to-date Linux build of SQL Server incredible. Of course they still license the bejeezus out of their products.
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Of course, and I suppose who can blame them for that? They are a business after all, with the purpose of making money. And software ultimately costs a lot of money to build.

Similar things are happening with Java. Oracle are now unleashing the sharks, to rake in all the license money that you owe them. Oh yeah, all that stuff in the Java SDK that you downloaded - well some of that isn't free, and you have to pay.
 
Continuing the MS theme, I've now started looking at Xamarin, for Android development.
We'll see how it measures up to my beloved Android Studio.
 
You're right because as a top participant in the Windows Insider Program I know first-hand there has been a lot of new modifications in Windows programme. I just purchased the HP Spectre 360X 15:6 running Windows Pro but there's some incompatibility issues with the Insiders problem and this computer. So in disabled windows inside of program and had to restore to the stock image. Virtual studio came with the computer.
 
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LV426 said:
Continuing the MS theme, I've now started looking at Xamarin, for Android development.
We'll see how it measures up to my beloved Android Studio.
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How is this working out? I've seen Xamarin come up a lot lately in search results. There seems to be plenty of chatter about it lately. Can't imagine it being on par with Android Studio. Jetbrains and Google have themselves a tour de force.
 
GameTheory said:
How is this working out? I've seen Xamarin come up a lot lately in search results. There seems to be plenty of chatter about it lately. Can't imagine it being on par with Android Studio. Jetbrains and Google have themselves a tour de force.
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Sorry to say, I haven't done anything more with it. Other things taking priority. You know how it goes.

What I would say is keep an open mind. I was surprised at how good Visual Studio 2017 actually is. It's a very nice IDE. And of course Xamarin allows you to build all the cross platform mobile variants from one code base. And C# is a great language to work with, dare I say, an improvement on Java. Ooh did I really say that?! ;)
 
LV426 said:
Sorry to say, I haven't done anything more with it. Other things taking priority. You know how it goes.

What I would say is keep an open mind. I was surprised at how good Visual Studio 2017 actually is. It's a very nice IDE. And of course Xamarin allows you to build all the cross platform mobile variants from one code base. And C# is a great language to work with, dare I say, an improvement on Java. Ooh did I really say that?! ;)
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That sounds really nice of your prospective :D
 
LV426 said:
Xamarin allows you to build all the cross platform mobile variants from one code base. And C# is a great language to work with, dare I say, an improvement on Java. Ooh did I really say that?! ;)
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I didn't know that about Xamarin. That changes my view on it. Perhaps I'll convince myself to repurpose an extra pc for windows to try out Xamarin.

You know what, many would agree with you that C# is an improvement over java. I wouldn't object to that.
 
GameTheory said:
I didn't know that about Xamarin. That changes my view on it. Perhaps I'll convince myself to repurpose an extra pc for windows to try out Xamarin.

You know what, many would agree with you that C# is an improvement over java. I wouldn't object to that.
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And there's not even a cost for this, because Visual Studio Community is free for use in open source and personal projects. You get the Xamarin plug-in with that too.

For me, C# smooths out all the rough edges of Java. Although I still haven't got my head around lambda expressions.
 
I was a Microsoft MVP Pocket PC.
Transported across my country for a week. Spent maybe $200 USD in Seattle.
Steak and drinks were expensive in Seattle.
Surprisingly my fellow MVPs were not intersted in drinking. :cool:
I felt like a lush.
 
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