Xamarin is Dead , Long Live MAUI

Yes, you read the title right. In May 2020, Microsoft announced that Xamarin.Forms, a significant component of its mobile app development framework, would be deprecated in November 2021 in favor of a replacement .Net based product called MAUI - Multiform App Interface.

The move may be a component of a general evolutionary step across the entire Xamarin environment. Xamarin has been around since 2011, having a troubled and confused development history. Theoretically, it appeared to have such tons going for it, but within the planet, Xamarin has proved to be bug ridden, badly implemented, and bloated.

The move to exchange Xamarin.Forms with MAUI seem to be an advanced Microsoft’s part. Microsoft features a habit of absorbing third party companies that do an honest job and reskinning it as a Microsoft product. that's just about what’s happening here. Xamarin was founded in 2011 and Microsoft announced they were getting to pip out way back in 2014. Xamarin has seen increased community support since then because it allows developers to quickly start making apps without having to find out multiple languages. Now, Microsoft has basically decided they need to scrap the Xamarin name and move it into their core product offering, starting with the discharge of .Net 6

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Popularity

Possibly, most Xamarin developers seem to hate using it.

Everything in Xamarin is unnecessarily difficult to use - even the text editor is “an abomination”, with developers resorting to using third-party tools, like Rider.
When a corporation can’t ship a software package with a usable text editor, as a developer you'll inevitably ask yourself “when are some things better coming along?”
From simply processing code to running the compiler requires workarounds, bug fixes, or frustration. (yes, and here’s a plug - Xamarin and Rider cost money. Modern cross-platform frameworks are free. So if you’re a developer, what are you going to like better to learn?)
 

Have a glance at some developer criticism of Xamarin here. It doesn’t bring gratifying reading, you get the impression that developers utterly hate using Xamarin and see it as a frustrating, dead-end solution.

Not an honest day within the office if you’re a developer. The tocsin comes once you realize that developers have a choice in what solutions they learn, and this is often one of the main driving forces behind the success or failure of a development framework.

Obviously, if you’re a CTO or IT Director, you'll avoid the noxious work of coding using an unnecessarily frustrating and contrary framework, but what happens when your Xamarin developers discover something much easier and easier to use?

And that’s what’s happening.

With the advancement of recent cross-platform frameworks, like Flutter and React Native, fewer and fewer developers are showing an interest in older frameworks like Xamarin and Ionic.
 

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What about my current Xamarin Apps?

If you’re reading this it’s probably because of your exposure to Xamarin, not your excitement for MAUI. Right now, you're fine. .Net MAUI isn't even in prerelease yet, and therefore the anticipated roadmap puts the GA release to November 2021. Once MAUI is released though, you'll expect the quality 12-month support window before they stop providing updates. If you have Xamarin as a part of your production process and you have Apps listed in the store, it's better to mull about upgrade plans as by November 2022 Xamarin will not be supported.

I’ve worked for companies who have built new Xamarin apps in recent years, therefore the knowledge that their investment in Xamarin hasn’t produced a product with the time period they’d hope for may come as a bitter blow. Personally, I might look to style a replacement app and or decide to port any existing apps after the primary set of fixes, likely March 2022 but this doesn't offer you an enormous amount of your time before the November 2022 stop so keep an eye fixed on the dates!
Once we get into Previews I will be able to start blogging thereon to gauge how good it might be from a migration perspective except for now I’d suggest slowing down investment into Xamarin apps and prepping for a replacement build next year!

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