Microsoft has announced it is killing off Visual Studio Mac IDE, ostensibly while saying it wants to focus on cross-platform development.

Microsoft made the announcement in a blog post:

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.

Interestingly enough, the company says the decision was made in an effort to focus on cross-platform development:

With today’s announcement, we’re redirecting our resources and focus to enhance Visual Studio and VS Code, optimizing them for cross-platform development.

Evidently, ‘focusing on cross-platform development’ means killing off one of those cross-platform tools.

Making the decision even more of a head-scratcher is the fact that Visual Studio Code Mac IDE just received a major update and overhaul last year.

Fortunately, VS Studio Code — arguably one of the better source-code editors — will continue to be developed for the Mac:

Visual Studio Code with the new C# Dev Kit and related extensions: The recently announced C# Dev Kit, .NET MAUI, and Unity Extensions for VS Code are available in preview and are intended to augment VS Code’s capabilities for .NET and C# developers. These extensions operate natively across all supported platforms, including macOS, and the experience using these will continue to be improved as they move from preview to GA and beyond.