On: The dying platform: .Net

[hga]

If they do that, they kill the commercial viability of alternatives, which among other things has anti-trust implications.

[gregd → hga]

In what way? They already have Intellisense and controls built into the IDE. Red Gate and Jet Brains just make them better IMHO. Some people prefer CodeRush and JustCode, although with my scenario in purchasing Telerik, JustCode would become part of the deal... Some people prefer DevExpress and Infragistics to Telerik...

[hga → gregd]

I'm not at all familiar with the current ecosystem, but the theory is that complete replacements for VS wouldn't be able to compete if VS was free.

Whatever the merits of the thesis, they'd certainly get sued, and almost certainly lose.