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Microsoft Continues Porting Visual C++ To Linux (microsoft.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader Billly Gates shared some news from Microsoft's Visual C++ blog: Visual Studio 2017 now lets developers write C++ code for Linux desktops, servers, and other devices without an extension, targeting specific architectures, including ARM:
Visual Studio will automatically copy and remotely build your sources and can launch your application with the debugger... Today Visual Studio only supports building remotely on the Linux target machine. It is not limited to specific Linux distros, but we do have dependencies on the presence of some tools. Specifically, we need openssh-server, g++, gdb and gdbserver.
You do realise that "remote" in this instance is you own Linux machine, right? Not a closed build server owned by Microsoft - you are asked for connection information to a Linux machine so VS can copy sources, build, run and connect the debugger.
A 30 second scan of the link in the summary would have shown that up, but that might have held up your shit posting...
So basically they're just porting the IDE.
No. The IDE still runs under Windows. This extension uses SSH to run the compiler on a remote Linux system.
Remind me again why I'd spend money on this instead of just freely using eclipse or netbeans or something?
You don't have to spend money on Visual Studio. This extension works with the free Community edition as well as the paid version. But if you don't currently use Visual Studio then you don't need change just for this feature. It is only really useful if you also want to use the software to develop Windows and mobile applications.
Personally I think "Fuck microsoft" perfectly sums it up. They spent decades attacking FOSS and hindering progress to line their own pockets. So yeah, fuck them.