What you need to know
- Microsoft has announced the end for the Visual Studio IDE on Mac.
- Current users have another year of support planned, but no further new features will be released.
- Users are being directed towards Visual Studio Code or towards Microsoft Dev Box (or other VM solutions on Mac) if they continue to need access to Visual Studio from September 2024.
Another product is joining the Microsoft graveyard, albeit not a total cancellation. Users of the Visual Studio IDE on Mac are being notified that the end is nigh. From August 31, 2024, Visual Studio for Mac will be no more and will only be available as a legacy download.
"Today we are announcing the retirement of the Visual Studio for Mac IDE. Visual Studio for Mac 17.6 will continue to be supported for another 12 months, until August 31st, 2024, with servicing updates for security issues and updated platforms from Apple. While the decision has been made to retire Visual Studio for Mac, we remain committed to our developers on Mac with alternatives like the recently announced C# Dev Kit for VS Code and other extensions that will allow you to take advantage of our ongoing investments in .NET development on a Mac."
So, why the end of life? Microsoft says the resources will be redirected towards enhancing Visual Studio (on Windows) and, more importantly, Visual Studio Code (VS Code). The popular cross-platform code editor occupies a significant market share, so it makes sense that more resources would be better spent there. Microsoft makes mention of the official C# Dev Kit extension for VS Code as an alternative for Mac users, alongside its Dev Box cloud VMs (or any other VM you can use Windows with on a Mac).
Current users will still get support for Visual Studio on Mac until August 31, 2024, but there will be no new features, runtime or language updates through this period. Essential updates will continue until then, including bug fixes, security patches and anything relating to platform updates from Apple. But from September 1, 2024, Visual Studio for Mac will be retired and will only be available as a legacy download, completely unsupported for those with a valid subscription.
