The range of coding tools used on Mac computers is somewhat more limited compared to those available on Windows computers. Among the popular coding tools for Mac computers, “Xcode” and “Visual Studio for Mac” stand out. However, according to recent news, the support for Visual Studio on Mac computers is being discontinued, just like Xcode. The question remains: until when will it be usable?
The plug is being pulled on Visual Studio for Mac computers
Despite receiving consistent updates in recent months, Microsoft has announced that support for Visual Studio for Mac will be discontinued after just one more year. The company stated that the program will be deprecated and support for the final version, 17.6, will end next year. Considering that Visual Studio 17 had received quite active support from Microsoft until just a few months ago, this decision comes as a surprising move.
The last major update was released in June, and previous updates had actually added noticeable improvements to the experience along with some significant functionalities. The exact reason for the sudden closure of the application is not entirely clear, but users of the program have only one more year to continue using it.
Microsoft states that the last version will be supported only until August 31, 2024, which is a relatively short support period for a product that was actively developed until recently. In fact, this program was an interesting product because, despite being a Microsoft product, it couldn’t be used to develop Windows applications.
If you are using the program, Microsoft recommends transitioning to the C# Dev Kit for Visual Studio Code, which is still available for Mac and the web. For Mac users, there are also other extensions available such as .NET MAUI and Unity, aiming to facilitate cross-platform development.
Alternatively, Microsoft suggests that you can always run Windows in a virtual machine (VM) or use the Microsoft Dev Box, a cloud-based VM provided for development. This also allows you to continue using older tools like Xamarin and F# if needed.
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