Summary: Microsoft gets its money's worth after Microsoft's proprietary tools get mentioned in FOSS sites, owing primarily to the openwashing by Xamarin

THE company which former Microsofters are funding, Xamarin, is still openwashing and enhancing Microsoft products. Open Source-centric Web sites fall into the trap of covering proprietary as though it is "open" and to quote this one example:

Xamarin has announced an across-the-board update to its range of products and pricing models designed to establish the company as the de facto bridge between Microsoft C# developers and Android and iOS mobile platforms. Xamarin's speciality has been working with the Mono toolchain for C# and for mobile development; rather than abstract away platform differences, the company implements a close-as-possible version of the platform's native APIs in C#.

The news was covered by the Microsoft booster, not a FOSS blogger, at Ars Technica. And that says a lot.

Since 2009, it's been possible to develop iOS applications using C# and .NET, courtesy of MonoTouch. But one important detail has always been missing. If you wanted to use Visual Studio—the premier C# and .NET development environment, the one that almost every C# developer calls home—you were out of luck.

Xamarin should be treated as a Microsoft ally, extension, and booster, not a FOSS company. It does not even pretend to be about FOSS anymore. ⬆