Test Driving Visual Studio 2022 and .NET 6

I like the new logo.

As I type this, this is now my 9th year of using Visual Studio brand of IDEs. When I started in 2012, I think, I started off with Visual Studio 2010. In the same year, I was able to switch to Visual Studio 2012. I remember paying for the ‘visual studio subscription’ (despite my then poverty) so I can get my hands on the ‘Pro’ edition.

I was just beginning my freelancing career, and it made sense to have the ‘Pro’ edition with all its pro features. Later, when I received the Microsoft MVP award, Microsoft gave me ‘Visual Studio Pro’ for free, in 2013. Since 2013, I haven’t had to pay for Azure (upto a limit) or Visual Studio as Microsoft kept renewing my azure credits and the subscription.

Of course, now, Visual Studio Community and Pro, have no feature difference other than licensing restrictions. I suppose, there is that.

Now, we are in 2022. This would be my 7th edition of Visual Studio usage. God! I am old. Nearing 40 years personally, and almost 25 years of coding, and 10 years of professional freelance coding and tutoring.

Wow.

But yeah, as it has been since 2010, I literally dont see much in terms of change with Visual Studio. Just like with windows. I think, Windows has remained the same since the late 90s. That is one reason why, tech products no longer excite me.

I remember getting excited when I first saw Visual Studio on Mac, a few years ago. Of course, the excitement tempered immediately when I realized that it was simply Xamarin Studio for Mac, rebranded as Visual Studio for Mac. That was a bummer. Visual Studio for Mac is bit of an insult to the nice name and reputation that Visual Studio for Windows.

I mean, the two editions are nothing like. I would rather do .NET on VS Code on Mac, instead of loading up the handicap that is Visual Studio for Mac.

So, what is new with 2022?

1. There is a new loading logo. About time. It’s neat.
2. The software appears to have a lower memory footprint. Visual Studio has always been a bit of a heavy resource application. Glad they have managed to shave off some of that app fat.
3. Package management, adding project references appears to have become less error prone and faster.
4. There is ‘live reload’ but in the short hours I spent, it did not seem to work for me.
5. I saw some traces of code completion with AI (similar to GitHub CoPilot, perhaps, the same technology? as GitHub is part of Microsoft), but I did not really use it.
6. The interface appears almost border less, with everything looking lean and clean.
7. Yes, you can use .NET 6 (which wont run on older Visual Studio, for some bizarre reason).

I must note here that I am using 2022 on a 3 year old, Surface Pro 4 with only 8 GB of RAM. I was afraid that 2022 might not run smooth. It does!

I am impressed.

Final Note

A new version of Visual Studio, for a developer (wait, I have retired from development. Now, I am only a coding tutor who occasionally develops), is like a sequel in an ongoing franchise.

You like it. You are not thrilled, but you are just happy that they keep making more of them, and update to current times.

I work as a full time freelance coding tutor. Hire me at UpWork or Fiverr or Stack Overflow. My personal website is here. Find more of my art at Behance and Unsplash.