Microsoft: Visual Studio for Mac preview is inbound

Microsoft recently announced plans to launch Visual Studio for Mac, something it revealed in a blog post that was deleted a short while after it went live. Though the announcement appears to have been made prematurely, all the details are now public and it seems the preview will arrive during the company's Connect developer event. Once it does, the days of Mac users having to use a Windows or virtual machine to run the software will officially end.

Though the original blog post has been deleted, the Internet never forgets and you can see the post yourself via this cached version. Microsoft included numerous screenshots of the software, one of which is below, while explaining that the Mac version won't be far removed from the Windows version.

"At its heart," Microsoft said, "Visual Studio for Mac is a macOS counterpart of the Windows version of Visual Studio." The Mac version's user experience has been designed in such a way that it will 'look and feel' like a native macOS application, but with the same undertones you'll find in the Windows version. And, of course, there's still Visual Studio Code as a more lightweight option.

Microsoft says you won't have to convert or migrate products if you switch between Windows and Mac machines, and you'll be able to 'seamlessly share' your projects from the macOS version to other users who run the Windows version. The preview version of the software will support C# and F# with the same F# compiler found in VS for Windows. Once the software is officially unveiled, you'll be able to download the macOS preview from VisualStudio.com.

SOURCE: Microsoft