Microsoft Makes Open-Source Windows Forms, WinUI, WPF

[Mike Frett]

One thing that comes to mind is Paint.NET. But I'm sure there dozens of little C++ tools that never got ported over such issues.

Pinta is Paint.NET. =)

[ryad]

Java on the desktop is pretty much dead and has always been, if C# takes its place no one will notice.

You have never developed with IntelliJ it seems

[UseLinuxNotWindows]

As WPF is now OPEN SOURCE, would it not be possible to take their code, fork it (it is on Github after all) and produce a WPF implementation that IS cross platform?

[GreenByte]

it is not:

“We also do not intend to accept contributions that provide cross-platform implementations for Windows Forms or WPF.”

https://github.com/dotnet/wpf/blob/master/Documentation/contributing.md

".... Such as Windows registry". UI is NOT an OS specific feature and a sentence before they said they welcome any cross-platform improving patches, it's just not full ports of something so core part of any OS.

[ssokolow]

it is not:

“We also do not intend to accept contributions that provide cross-platform implementations for Windows Forms or WPF.”

https://github.com/dotnet/wpf/blob/master/Documentation/contributing.md

It could still be a step toward that if someone chooses to maintain a downstream fork, so saying "it is not" is a little premature.

[mzs.112000]

One thing that comes to mind is Paint.NET. But I'm sure there dozens of little C++ tools that never got ported over such issues.

MyPaint and Pinta do almost anything that Paint.NET does though.

[mzs.112000]

Their Linux contributions are solely to enable them to get Linux software running on top of their platform be it Azure or the NT kernel. They have zero interest in switching to Linux and this is just another iteration of Embrace, Extend and Extinguish. We are in the Embrace stage at the moment.

We are either at the tail end of their Embrace stage or the beginning of the Extend stage, or both...
Microsoft is putting out .NET as open-source and releasing .NET Core for Linux, along with VS Code.

This is exactly what we feared years ago(At least, it's what I feared years ago), that Microsoft was going to suddenly turn around and "embrace" FOSS, and Linux, but infiltrate it and destroy it from the inside out(imagine if they were to get Microsoft-built modules inside the Linux kernel, and come up with a way to compile the Linux kernel with VS Code or the like...) Microsoft could come up with a licence clause that essentially would allow them to own Linux kernel development. .NET Core is just as bad, since Microsoft could take over userspace programs with it.

This is why we *need* to keep working towards the goal of getting Linux adopted by more people, without any Microsoft stuff being thrown into the mix....

[Luke_Wolf]

I predicted this would happen... I was naysayed but I called it. Basically here's the deal: Microsoft needs to be thought of not as a monolithic entity but as a half dozen or so different silos that and the Developers and Tools Division is very on board with open source. However they didn't have control of WPF or WinForms to be able to release them Windows Division did which is/was hostile to open source. So they had to be shown it works, and lobbied by Developers and Tools, and so here we have them finally testing the waters. Give it a year or two and we'll probably see some more code drops from them.

[c117152]

Is it useful for anything on Linux?

One thing that comes to mind is Paint.NET. But I'm sure there dozens of little C++ tools that never got ported over such issues.

[jacob]

Is it useful for anything on Linux?

Presumably for Wine?
Or to facilitate porting Windows apps to Linux?