Microsoft has finally released Visual Studio 2017 - the refreshed version of Microsoft's integrated development environment (IDE) - for public download. The new Visual Studio 2017 brings support for non-Windows operating systems that allows developers to build cloud and mobile apps on Mac, Linux, and others. The entire suite is available to download from the company's Visual Studio website, along with an offer that gives early adopters free 60 days access to Xamarin University to learn coding.
As promised, Microsoft has pulled Visual Studio's public preview out of the testing phase and it is now available online. Visual Studio 2017 comes with several new features and the support for Mac, Linux, and other platforms is the significant one. Claimed as "the most productive version yet", Microsoft emphasises capabilities of Visual Studio 2017 to "help any developer, build any application, on any platform." Notably, the app development on Visual Studio is primarily centred on cloud (including Microsoft Azure App Service) and mobile apps for literally any OS platform.
The rundown of the new features in Visual Studio 2017 also includes an overhauled and sped-up installation and project load that's three times faster than Visual Studio 2015, enhanced navigation, new language improvements, CMake support for C++, Linux support for C++, real-time testing of code modules, Xamarin Forms Previewer, cloud connectivity, .NET Core, and DevOps among others.
Alongside the launch of Visual Studio 2017 for public, Microsoft also revealed Visual Studio for Mac Preview 4, Team Foundation Server 2017 Update 1, in additions to its Visual Studio Enterprise subscription, and Visual Studio Mobile Center Preview updates. There is also a word on the Python tools preview for the Visual Studio 2017, but the final version doesn't include them. Instead, the preview of Python tools is said to arrive later as an update to the Visual Studio 2017.
At its live-streamed event on Tuesday, Microsoft outed some achievements and milestones about its developers tools as well. According to the Redmond-based company, between February 2016 and February 2017, Visual Studio monthly active users increased by 25 percent, while talking about the past six months, monthly active users of Microsoft's IDEs for Mac grew as much as twice. Though there were no actual figures disclosed for the previous milestone, Microsoft did go onto say that the Visual Studio Code has hit 1.3 million monthly active users. The Visual Studio Team Services now has 5 million registered users, and Visual Studio Dev Essentials has about 1.4 million members overall. The Xamarin download numbers have also risen to over 1 million since its acquisition.
Here's a quick rundown of all the features that have arrived on the Visual Studio 2017:
You can visit Microsoft Visual Studio website to download the latest suite of Visual Studio 2017.
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