Which C# UI Desktop Technology to Pick? | Stream Highlight | .NET MAUI, WinUI 3, WPF, Avalonia, Uno

[@SnowtoadVRDev]

Great vid. I would love to see an updated opinion on the same subject. I have been looking at MAUI, primarily for a desktop app, but it still feel like a mobile first solution. When you mentioned PowerBuilder, it made me shudder a little :)

[@Duelweb]

Oh my word. Sat down in a local coffee shopt with the aim of deciding exactly what this video explains!!! The universe has my back! Thanks James!

[@azrinsani]

I dont think there will be any question once Avalonia Mobile is ready. Avalonia is the game changer.... its the next flutter.

[@adamandsteve13]

Avalonia vs Maui vs Uno platform

[@Do_It_Stupidly]

​@@adamandsteve13 avalonia vs uno. I think Maui can't compete. It doesn't support Linux and wasm.

[@jojomondag]

I agree ive done some resarch, and the thing with Avalonia is that it JUST WORKS!

[@nickbarton3191]

Old post, but just started replacing all UIs with Avalonia, embedded targeting Linux and Windows panels.

[@smartchallenger24]

Hi James, since this video was recorded 2 years ago, wanted to hear your thoughts on .NET MAUI vs Avalonia in May 2024. I have viewed other videos reviewing MAUI in Nov 2023 and they mentioned that MAUI at .NET 6 was still very buggy. So 2 questions I guess if you could address them! Thanks for your great videos.

[@tpikaro]

I kinda miss background information or comparison of UI framework. What is good / what is bad, how well evolving - how many stars, issues are on github, etc... How big dev team works behind that UI framework.

[@kevinmungame1869]

Was waiting for some hint on this, thanks, James.

[@bennguyen1313]

It seems these tools come and go fast... Flash, Silverlight 5 , Moonlight , etc. Will the smoke ever settle? Any thoughts on the upcoming NET 7 / Avalonia versus Flutter ?

[@HarleyPebley]

Wow, PowerBuilder. There's a blast from the past. :-) I never used it but it was the hot thing in the 90's, competing with Delphi (and others) for mindshare to create CRUD applications although they took very different approaches.

[@flipflap4673]

yes, I've been programming in Powerbuilder since 1993. It's still alive nowadays and Appeon has taken over the product and blowing new life into it. However, people want to move away from it, since they can't find any developers. You could teach someone, but - after doing a job search on powerbuilder - nobody wants to learn it. :)

[@esparda07]

We still use it lol. It's been bought out by a new company and is still going.

[@takisbezaitis7741]

Hi, thanks for the great videos you make! So, if I want to start learning C# is it OK if I start with WPF for desktop applications? My main question is: will WPF/XAML be part of MAUI? Learning C# for mobile applications is more straightforward, since MAUI will include xamarin forms, right? Thank you. Greetings from Greece!

[@eylonemuskson4177]

I have this exact question too. I'm just starting to learn C# now, coming from Python.

[@takisbezaitis7741]

@@eylonemuskson4177 I'm coming from Javascript. I love Python, although I only know how to make games with pyGame. There are so many things we "should" learn. Not enough time to become experts... We are "doomed" to study forever. :)) Good luck!!

[@tomahawk5357]

@@eylonemuskson4177 I have a C# background development mainly server side and I enhanced my knowledge of WPF these last days. I am using the TreeView, ListView, standard controls ( buttons, Labels,...) and mostly the RichTextBox (working with the flowdocument embedded in it). WPF is a very powerful framework and in the Microsoft stack UI mess (UWP is awful, MAUI?) I think it is the good choice if you target only Windows users. Blazor looks cool and might be my next investment. My awful experience with UWP tells me to always wait until a Michrosoft technology is enough mature before investing in it.

[@TankersonWoT]

MAUI is an evolution of Xamarin, so they will have at least partial compatibility with each other (in MAUI there is different way of dealing with platform-sepcifics and renderers). I would say that it is valid to learn WPF, but MAUI will include WinUI for Windows desktop environment, so you may want to jump onto that train, it will stay a little big longer with us. Personally, I have learnt Xamarin and now I have no major problem using WPF (besides what are controls I use, these are a little different), and since MAUI is built on top of xamarin, after using WPF you should not have much of a problem go get to this cross platform framework

[@tomahawk5357]

@@TankersonWoT MAUI is postponed to second quarter of next year. It may be a good solution but as of today I think that WPF is the best solution for building desktop App runing on Windows.

[@dotnetdevni]

I still use winforms when it a fast app turn around required

[@SimpMcSimpy]

I still use WinForms for everything :)

[@sealsharp]

The main issue is ui-scaling which even with the improvements is still kinda meh. As long as you know where the app is running its perfectly fine.

[@MrChelovek68]

avalonia only

[@scififan698]

Absolutely 💯!

[@SparkeyAvalon]

I missed the WinUI 3 part. That's the only reason I clicked the video. :(

[@georgeleithead]

Solid advice as always. Keep it up!

[@piotrm3700]

Do you think avalonia and Uno has bright future?

[@bartez8018]

I want to learn how to build desktop app, should I go with WFP or UWP or Avalonia?

[@brandonberisford]

WPF

[@Alexgoone]

WPF

[@scififan698]

Definitely avalonia. It's portable. Wpf is not.

[@scf0carbonete]

Hi James, great channel. Can you make video, how to profile Forms app in Android without VS Enterprise, i have VS Professional ?

[@orthodoxNPC]

thoughts on QT6?

[@mozamilahmadafghan4889]

Why there is two projects in dotnet maui? Why not adding WinUI3 to the platforms part?

[@JamesMontemagno]

The teams are working together to enable this into a single project. Lots of new still and a preview

[@MohammadNawaz786]

Hi All Issue in android emulator MAUI c# xamarin mobile maui I have created a MAUI project in VS 2022 preview, which is working fine initially with emulator, but now Emulator is not showing. When I create Xamarin project Emulator is showing and application is running on that Emulator. Please help me to resolve this issue as it occurs developing application I have tried below I had delete/renamed Copy Code C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Xamarin C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\17.0_e17a11fb\ComponentModelCache I had repair VS 2022 preview I had reinstall MAUI

[@ahmadarab1066]

Thank you very much, I really like your videos

[@petrzurek5713]

Avalonia > WPF > WinForms

[@gurriato]

Windows Forms > everything else

[@IBNEKAYESH]

WinForms is again back NET 8

[@JamesMontemagno]

It never left!

[@sacarymoviesamu]

Hello , James. I'm trying to build a multiplatforma app but xamarin is difficult for me (I've been 3 years using visual mode controls in android, like dragging buttons, changing their size with the mouse, etc). I need to build and android and windows app. Do you have any advice for me in this difficult task i'm in ? Thanks in advance.

[@0tiii]

You really need to learn the basics of programming, understand how computers work, how programming languages work and development concepts such as OOP. You really need to learn dry theory first and then deepen that understanding by programming small projects. following tutorials is okay for a starter but its important you learn to move away from following tutorials eventually and start using documentation to understand what to do. Only then you can stay up to date with new technologies, without relying on others explaining/doing it for you.

[@kdowd161]

too much waffle...

[@JamesMontemagno]

🧇