6 ms·

The future of .NET is on Linux, not windows. If the community and Microsoft both do everything they can to make that a reality, it could all pay off. As long a

The future of .NET is on Linux, not windows. If the community and Microsoft both do everything they can to make that a reality, it could all pay off. As long as you see visual studio only tutorials, windows only build scripts and windows only deployment stories, it won't happen.

enricosada 10y ago
there is not much windows only, check github status of dotnet/cli (the sdk), https://github.com/dotnet/cli#build-status https://github.com/dotnet/cli#build-status, lots of os supported, just clone + build
- issaria 10y ago
  As a linux user, I tried: 1) Visual studio only works on windows 2) It runs on mono 3) I don't like .exe and .dll stuff
  - jafingi 10y ago
    Jetbrains Rider is coming soon. It's pretty great!
    - caleblloyd 10y ago
      JetBrains Rider Public EAP is out. I've been using the private EAP on Linux for 6 months and it just keeps getting better. I contribute to a couple open source .NET projects working with developers that use Visual Studio on Windows and don't run into many cross platform issues. I commonly see open source .NET Core projects run Windows CI with Appveyor and Linux CI with Travis so catching cross platform build issues is not hard.
    - hobarrera 10y ago
      Jetbrains' stuff only works properly on Oracle's proprietary JDK, and not on the reference JDK (OpenJDK), which kinda sucks, doubly so since the former is not re-distributable, making it even more alien in the linux world.
      - olavgg 10y ago
        I run it on OpenJDK just fine.
      - hhandoko 10y ago
        I don't think this is true anymore [1]. They're bundling IntelliJ with custom OpenJDK (with needed bug fixes) in recent releases. In addition, I run on Azul Zulu [2][3] for Java / Scala / Kotlin development and haven't had any problems so far (switched about a year ago). Notes: [1] - https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/articles/206544879-Selecting-the-JDK-version-the-IDE-will-run-under https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/articles/206... [2] - https://www.azul.com/products/zulu/ https://www.azul.com/products/zulu/ [3] - macOS Sierra at work, and Ubuntu 14.04 at home
        hobarrera 10y ago
        I'll completely pass on software that requires (and bundles!) it's own JDK. I already have the reference implementation installed, honestly programs should use that, not bundle their own. Anyway, I still gave it a try to see how it works. Looks like they're resolved lots of the visual glitches (especially the most serious ones, like font rendering). For some reason though, after running the app, I was left with two directories in my home with dumps of configs/cache all mixed up. :/
  - xyz-x 10y ago
    1. VSCode runs on linux 2. On .Net Core 3. meh
    - issaria 10y ago
      VSCode is NOT VS, dude.
      - xyz-x 10y ago
        Precisely, you get it!
samfisher83 10y ago
How does Microsoft make money on this? Sun spent all this money supporting java, but they ultimately couldn't survive.
- baconner 10y ago
  The more people they bring I to the .net community the more opportunities they have to sell tons of azure services. Doesn't hurt them to be more open because existing .net shops are still going to pay for msdn, etc.
- wernercd 10y ago
  The same way Office on Mac OS/iOS brings MS Money... services. Office365, Azure, etc.
- brazzledazzle 10y ago
  I think that if Microsoft makes .NET attractive to a large number of developers regardless of their preferred OS they have a headstart and constant edge on the competition in terms of services that mesh well with .NET. This increases the appeal of Azure and its services. It might be a good shortcut since they're competing with established players who have the early edge. Stealing away a lot of customers from the competition in the cloud space is going to take more than competitive pricing since you're fighting familiarity/experience, first-to-market advantages and a lack of 1:1 features on some services.
- benaadams 10y ago
  They use .NET and build their tools and services using it. .NET gets better so does their associated services built using it.
SBArbeit 10y ago
The future of .NET is on both Windows and Linux. Millions of existing .NET developers are happy to continue making .NET code for billions of Windows devices. On PaaS, it still makes a lot of sense to use Windows as the underlying OS. And, yes, the proportion of Linux vs. Windows underneath will go up, because that's the only direction available.
- mindingdata 10y ago
  >On PaaS, it still makes a lot of sense to use Windows as the underlying OS Why is this the case? I would have thought PaaS of all things would be OS agnostic as the end user doesn't really care about the OS or how things are being done in the background as long as it's simple to deploy/configure etc. For example if Azure Websites suddenly made this big shift to Linux for some reason, it wouldn't affect anyone actually using the service.
- brazzledazzle 10y ago
  Maybe they meant the future of .NET server side. I could see that in the future with the last holdouts being big corporate server environments already heavily invested in Windows (particularly internal apps).
hobarrera 10y ago
This is quite true. Using clasic *nix tools (vim+plugins, zsh, etc) plus their CLI tools, I can download and build many C# projects. Creating a new solution/project? I need an IDE for that. Or copy-paste the base project files from an existing one.
- nikon 10y ago
  you can just run the dotnet new command.
pjmlp 10y ago
The majority of desktop applications that we create, and we do create quite a few of them, are mostly WPF, with some new ones now being prototyped in UWP. So no, .NET on GNU/Linux won't make those customers magically migrate to it, specially since GUI tooling isn't part of .NET Standard. Even if WPF, UWP and Blend get ported, I don't see those customers changing their IT infrastructure for desktop, device readers and robot controllers OSes.
- rcurry 10y ago
  What kind of WPF applications are you writing? I'm just curious because I always liked WPF but I don't hear about too many people developing for it these days.
  - pjmlp 10y ago
    Data manipulation applications for life sciences data analysis, front ends to industrial robot automation systems, control software for medical devices, scheduling systems, ... Sometimes there is still an inhouse C++ layer for driving the hardware when talking to older devices, but newer ones are covered by standard Windows APIs or OEM provided libraries, so we can write everything in .NET. If you search for WPF jobs in Europe you will find many people do use it, even for greenfield projects.

enricosada 10y ago

there is not much windows only, check github status of dotnet/cli (the sdk), https://github.com/dotnet/cli#build-status https://github.com/dotnet/cli#build-status, lots of os supported, just clone + build

issaria 10y ago
As a linux user, I tried: 1) Visual studio only works on windows 2) It runs on mono 3) I don't like .exe and .dll stuff
- jafingi 10y ago
  Jetbrains Rider is coming soon. It's pretty great!
  - caleblloyd 10y ago
    JetBrains Rider Public EAP is out. I've been using the private EAP on Linux for 6 months and it just keeps getting better. I contribute to a couple open source .NET projects working with developers that use Visual Studio on Windows and don't run into many cross platform issues. I commonly see open source .NET Core projects run Windows CI with Appveyor and Linux CI with Travis so catching cross platform build issues is not hard.
  - hobarrera 10y ago
    Jetbrains' stuff only works properly on Oracle's proprietary JDK, and not on the reference JDK (OpenJDK), which kinda sucks, doubly so since the former is not re-distributable, making it even more alien in the linux world.
    - olavgg 10y ago
      I run it on OpenJDK just fine.
    - hhandoko 10y ago
      I don't think this is true anymore [1]. They're bundling IntelliJ with custom OpenJDK (with needed bug fixes) in recent releases. In addition, I run on Azul Zulu [2][3] for Java / Scala / Kotlin development and haven't had any problems so far (switched about a year ago). Notes: [1] - https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/articles/206544879-Selecting-the-JDK-version-the-IDE-will-run-under https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/articles/206... [2] - https://www.azul.com/products/zulu/ https://www.azul.com/products/zulu/ [3] - macOS Sierra at work, and Ubuntu 14.04 at home
      - hobarrera 10y ago
        I'll completely pass on software that requires (and bundles!) it's own JDK. I already have the reference implementation installed, honestly programs should use that, not bundle their own. Anyway, I still gave it a try to see how it works. Looks like they're resolved lots of the visual glitches (especially the most serious ones, like font rendering). For some reason though, after running the app, I was left with two directories in my home with dumps of configs/cache all mixed up. :/
- xyz-x 10y ago
  1. VSCode runs on linux 2. On .Net Core 3. meh
  - issaria 10y ago
    VSCode is NOT VS, dude.
    - xyz-x 10y ago
      Precisely, you get it!

samfisher83 10y ago

How does Microsoft make money on this? Sun spent all this money supporting java, but they ultimately couldn't survive.

baconner 10y ago
The more people they bring I to the .net community the more opportunities they have to sell tons of azure services. Doesn't hurt them to be more open because existing .net shops are still going to pay for msdn, etc.
wernercd 10y ago
The same way Office on Mac OS/iOS brings MS Money... services. Office365, Azure, etc.
brazzledazzle 10y ago
I think that if Microsoft makes .NET attractive to a large number of developers regardless of their preferred OS they have a headstart and constant edge on the competition in terms of services that mesh well with .NET. This increases the appeal of Azure and its services. It might be a good shortcut since they're competing with established players who have the early edge. Stealing away a lot of customers from the competition in the cloud space is going to take more than competitive pricing since you're fighting familiarity/experience, first-to-market advantages and a lack of 1:1 features on some services.
benaadams 10y ago
They use .NET and build their tools and services using it. .NET gets better so does their associated services built using it.

SBArbeit 10y ago

The future of .NET is on both Windows and Linux. Millions of existing .NET developers are happy to continue making .NET code for billions of Windows devices. On PaaS, it still makes a lot of sense to use Windows as the underlying OS. And, yes, the proportion of Linux vs. Windows underneath will go up, because that's the only direction available.

mindingdata 10y ago
>On PaaS, it still makes a lot of sense to use Windows as the underlying OS Why is this the case? I would have thought PaaS of all things would be OS agnostic as the end user doesn't really care about the OS or how things are being done in the background as long as it's simple to deploy/configure etc. For example if Azure Websites suddenly made this big shift to Linux for some reason, it wouldn't affect anyone actually using the service.
brazzledazzle 10y ago
Maybe they meant the future of .NET server side. I could see that in the future with the last holdouts being big corporate server environments already heavily invested in Windows (particularly internal apps).

hobarrera 10y ago

This is quite true. Using clasic *nix tools (vim+plugins, zsh, etc) plus their CLI tools, I can download and build many C# projects. Creating a new solution/project? I need an IDE for that. Or copy-paste the base project files from an existing one.

nikon 10y ago
you can just run the dotnet new command.

pjmlp 10y ago

The majority of desktop applications that we create, and we do create quite a few of them, are mostly WPF, with some new ones now being prototyped in UWP. So no, .NET on GNU/Linux won't make those customers magically migrate to it, specially since GUI tooling isn't part of .NET Standard. Even if WPF, UWP and Blend get ported, I don't see those customers changing their IT infrastructure for desktop, device readers and robot controllers OSes.

rcurry 10y ago
What kind of WPF applications are you writing? I'm just curious because I always liked WPF but I don't hear about too many people developing for it these days.
- pjmlp 10y ago
  Data manipulation applications for life sciences data analysis, front ends to industrial robot automation systems, control software for medical devices, scheduling systems, ... Sometimes there is still an inhouse C++ layer for driving the hardware when talking to older devices, but newer ones are covered by standard Windows APIs or OEM provided libraries, so we can write everything in .NET. If you search for WPF jobs in Europe you will find many people do use it, even for greenfield projects.