Visual Studio for Mac vs Visual Studio Code

Just discovered that there is a Mac version of my favorite windows editor, Visual Studio.
https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/visual-studio-mac/
Up till now I have been using Visual Studio Code on the Mac.

Anyone else using Visual Studio for mac? What are some of the pros, cons vs other C# editors?

 

Licensing, basically. If it's not an issue for you, then by all means, use it.

 

Before you get too excited you might want to know that it's just a reskinned Mono Develop.

https://adtmag.com/articles/2017/05/10/vs-for-mac.aspx

 

I had no idea this existed... huh.

Well Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio are hugely different products, so I suspect there are lots of differences really. More than just licensing.

Really? It's just a reskinned monodevelop?

Yeah, that's definitely hugely different from Visual Studio Code.

And honestly... ouch Microsoft. Ugh... way to attach your brand to a subpar product. I mean I get they've been trying to expand .net into the 'open-source' community. But release a skin for monodevelop, don't reskin it and then say "yeah, this is basically Visual Studio".

I mean I'm already annoyed by the branding of Visual Studio Code, just googling for how-to's and documentation on either is chaos let alone the userbase confusion between the two. This just adds more layers of confusion.

 

Of course. However, licensing is usually the deciding factor in whether it should be used or not before you get into the details of its pros and cons. For example, if you're a mid-sized gaming company, then VS Community is off limits, so it's not really worth evaluating its features. Unless you're willing to pay for the licensing fees of regular VS.

However, if you're an indie developer or a small team (that can be counted on less than two hands), then sure, evaluate it.

I won't say that one product is better than the other since it's such a subjective thing. I have a coworker who still insists on VI, for example.

All I can say is give it a try and see if you like it.

Yes, even if it's just a rebadged Xamarin IDE. Hopefully it's still better than the vanilla version that shipped (still ships?) with Unity for the Mac at least.

Of course, all that said, it's clear as mud how licensing applies to the Mac version of Visual Studio. Considering that MonoDevelop itself is open source... just be sure to check for that before committing to it.

 

VS for Mac is nothing like VS for windows, however, I have found it's a lot more stable than monodevelop. I rarely use my mac, but I did put VS for Mac on it and just have a better experience in it. That being said, no, you'll not get the same experience you will get in the windows version.

I was not a fan personally of VS Code, it was just harder to work around and get setup it felt like.