14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has recently confirmed that the next Visual Studio release will be simply called Visual Studio 2019, revealing that it’s already working on this update, but without sharing any specifics.
In a blog post vaguely discussing What’s next for Visual Studio, Microsoft says that it’s already laying the foundation for the 2019 release, adding that it’s now in the planning phase for both Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio for Mac.
The company has remained tight-lipped on feature updates, though it did highlight some of the areas that it will specifically focus on with Visual Studio 2019.
“We remain committed to making Visual Studio faster, more reliable, more productive for individuals and teams, easier to use, and easier to get started with. Expect more and better refactorings, better navigation, more capabilities in the debugger, faster solution load, and faster builds,” it said.
“But also expect us to continue to explore how connected capabilities like Live Share can enable developers to collaborate in real time from across the world and how we can make cloud scenarios like working with online source repositories more seamless. Expect us to push the boundaries of individual and team productivity with capabilities like IntelliCode, where Visual Studio can use Azure to train and deliver AI-powered assistance into the IDE.”
Windows version support
One particular reference that’s raising some questions concerns the operating system support that Visual Studio is going to offer. In the post, Microsoft explains that it wants Visual Studio 2019 to be an easy upgrade for everyone, adding that it won’t require a “major” operating system upgrade.
Visual Studio currently works on all versions of Windows that are still getting support, including Windows 7 and 8.1, and this mention could be a sign that the upcoming release won’t be exclusive to Windows 10.
No other details have been shared on when Visual Studio 2019 could ship, but there’s a chance that not even Microsoft can estimate this date right now given that the project is still in its early days.