

No-cost desktop software development is dead on Windows 8 - ageektrapped
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/05/no-cost-desktop-software-development-is-dead-on-windows-8/

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bunderbunder
An interesting and, I fear, misguided decision. I suspect that one of the most
underrated factors in the growing popularity of non-Windows platforms is the
availability of high-quality free development tools.

The cost of a Visual Studio Standard license is a daunting, but not too bad to
someone who's already in an established career. But to a young programmer
who's still in school or in the early stages of their career, it's simply
unaffordable. And that means that they're going to go with someone else
instead.

Folks are generally going to want to stick with the platform they know best,
so that's going to lead to a reduced supply of Windows app developers in the
short run. Worse yet, in the longer run it will undercut the core of
Microsoft's ecosystem by reducing the supply (and driving up the cost) of
enterprise developers who are skilled in their platform.

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dccoolgai
Filicide against the .net ecosystem. Glad I turned to js about a year ago.

