4 ms·

I am a long time Windows desktop developer. Since around Windows 8 MS has lost any sense of direction and just keeps cranking out new frameworks only to drop th

I am a long time Windows desktop developer. Since around Windows 8 MS has lost any sense of direction and just keeps cranking out new frameworks only to drop them soon after. All frameworks available are either outdated or incomplete. It’s very frustrating. When you look at Teams or Outlook it seems even MS themselves doesn’t know anymore how to develop solid and reliable desktop apps. My advise is to go either qt, electron or web. Preferrably web IMO because there is a clear path to the future.

datavirtue 5y ago
I just went back to Java Swing and stopped being frustrated.
- tobltobs 5y ago
  It says a lot if Swing is the least frustrating framework.
  - spaetzleesser 5y ago
    At least it’s stable and doesn’t change all the time.
BarryMilo 5y ago
Exactly, do what Microsoft does and avoid Microsoft frameworks.
toyg 5y ago
That's because MS effectively abandoned Windows as a revenue generator, in order to become a cloud vendor. Windows exists just to give you a way to consume or develop web-apps that run in Azure. Office exists to get you to use Office365, again generating cloud-based revenue. Commercially, it works. Unfortunately, it's slowly killing the desktop computing experience. Unlike Apple, they don't even have a real interest in shifting hardware, so they can happily treat the desktop market like dirt. It's weird, seeing MS effectively strangling their own baby, but I guess Wall Street is happy.
- NickInSF 5y ago
  Exactly. Your post answers OP's question. The root cause of the SDK fragmentation is because Microsoft sees diminishing returns for Windows. After Silverlight failed to gain adoption, they started losing interest in the desktop. When Windows Phone was killed, there was even less interest in UWP. It's a shame because .NET is quite nice.
ratww 5y ago
> just keeps cranking out new frameworks only to drop them soon after I agree with the first part, but IMO the situation would be better if they actually dropped frameworks instead of having them all in a limbo state.
- spaetzleesser 5y ago
  And provide an upgrade path.

datavirtue 5y ago

I just went back to Java Swing and stopped being frustrated.

tobltobs 5y ago
It says a lot if Swing is the least frustrating framework.
- spaetzleesser 5y ago
  At least it’s stable and doesn’t change all the time.

BarryMilo 5y ago

Exactly, do what Microsoft does and avoid Microsoft frameworks.

toyg 5y ago

That's because MS effectively abandoned Windows as a revenue generator, in order to become a cloud vendor. Windows exists just to give you a way to consume or develop web-apps that run in Azure. Office exists to get you to use Office365, again generating cloud-based revenue. Commercially, it works. Unfortunately, it's slowly killing the desktop computing experience. Unlike Apple, they don't even have a real interest in shifting hardware, so they can happily treat the desktop market like dirt. It's weird, seeing MS effectively strangling their own baby, but I guess Wall Street is happy.

NickInSF 5y ago
Exactly. Your post answers OP's question. The root cause of the SDK fragmentation is because Microsoft sees diminishing returns for Windows. After Silverlight failed to gain adoption, they started losing interest in the desktop. When Windows Phone was killed, there was even less interest in UWP. It's a shame because .NET is quite nice.

ratww 5y ago

> just keeps cranking out new frameworks only to drop them soon after I agree with the first part, but IMO the situation would be better if they actually dropped frameworks instead of having them all in a limbo state.

spaetzleesser 5y ago
And provide an upgrade path.