An ASP.NET GitHub thread entitled “Epic: Eventing Framework in .NET 9” ignited an inferno of criticism for the usual reasons: Microsoft big-footing its own .NET OSS ecosystem, etc, etc…
A few years ago I would have cared about that, but this is simply in Microsoft’s nature - as I’ve written about here before. No amount of public venting of nerd rage or OSS community spirit is going to reach the top of the ivory tower over there. Only changes to Azure spend can make that happen.
If you want to play in the .NET ecosystem as an OSS project, a tool maker, etc - this is the price of admission. If Microsoft entering your space is enough to make you quit or enough to kill your business then you were never creative, determined, or passionate enough to succeed in the first place.
Microsoft claims they’re working on this framework mostly just to improve Azure WebJobs and therefore this isn’t really a threat to MassTransit, Wolverine, MediatR, et al but I don’t believe that. Why make it an epic within ASP.NET, by far the most popular framework in the ecosystem, if you don’t intend to have third parties actually use it?
That aside, it’s not the reaction of the OSS producers or Microsoft on that thread I found interesting - it was the reaction of .NET OSS consumers that caught me by surprise.
Many .NET developers were vocally cheering on the destruction of these popular third party frameworks, as though having multiple, well-maintained tools was an inconvenience that needed solving.
Who are the .NET developers demanding that .NET destroy its own ecosystem and return to .NET to the uncompetitive, intellectual ghetto of yesteryear?