Why Microsoft Will Never Make .NET Truly Portable

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Why Microsoft Will Never Make .NET Truly Portable

published 1 year, 6 months ago, submitted by ComputerGuru 1 year, 6 months ago

neosmart.net — While is Microsoft is hyping open-sourcing of portions of the CLR and the viability of cross-platform .NET programming, the truth is a little more murky. .NET is cross-platform.... but only if you write pure console applications. If you use a GUI, if you use a single message box, pop-up menu, or toolbar, if you have a single image, .NET is portable no more. This article looks into the motivation (or lack thereof) that Microsoft has to make .NET truly portable no matter what platform.

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Kicked because its more interesting than not. The blog doesn't explain "why" it will "never be" portable; it just whines a bit on the subject.

posted by

yesthatmcgurk 1 year, 6 months ago

Frankly, I don't think most people care. So, Silverlight won't run on 2% of the world's Linux-based desktops. Who the hell cares? What's next, someone whining that it doesn't run on Amiga's .03 percent?

People forget that Java's attempt at cross platform was pretty terrible: poor performing, ugly UIs that didn't work or feel like native UIs. Combine that with the fact that to this day, many Java APIs are NOT cross platform or do not work the same across all platforms. (see Java threading) Java has since been virtually banned from desktop use. The few Java desktop apps remaining end up using a native toolkit.

This should be a warning sign to Microsoft. ComputerGuru does not represent the majority by any means. I'd rather have a platform that works great and consistent on a majority of users' machines than a x-plat that looks funny and is inconsistent across platforms.

posted by

JudahGabriel 1 year, 6 months ago

Plus the premise is rubbish - a lot of Winforms is already portable to Mono.

It is more of a problem than you might imagine though. A massively higher proportion of web designers use Macs than the general web populace - so if the *tools* aren't portable then designers won't use them (so the platform will fail)...

posted by fuzzyman 1 year, 5 months ago