IMO the long term strategy is Enterprise Javascript on one hand and Azure on the other one.
Azure is the obvious one.
Enterprise Javascript is basically:
1. Javascript is probably the most popular programming language at the moment (or at least top 3).
2. Since the creation of Node Javascript has entered the realm of back end services applications.
3. There's a lot of Javascript being written these days, and those lines of code will have to be maintained.
4. A large enterprise will need good tools from a solid, respected vendor, preferably one that has a great image in the developer community.
5. These tools, Open Source but beefed up with enterprise extensions, will cost $$$.
Microsoft was losing the back end completely, on the long term. It has already lost the frond end: web, Android, iOS. Now it's clawing its way back with its back end stacks or at least with tools meant for Open Source stacks.
Mark my words, after this huge flurry of development to mark Visual Studio Code as the leading cross platform "light IDE" (ahead of Sublime, Atom and maybe even ahead of some "heavy IDEs" such as Eclipse or Netbeans), Microsoft will release proprietary extensions, especially things targeting big enterprises.
In my eyes, this is a win-win situation. Microsoft still makes money, developers don't get EEEd like in the bad old 90s, etc.
>> There's a lot of Javascript being written these days, and those lines of code will have to be maintained.
Maintained and supported. How many JS libraries have developers jumped on, only to see them die a few years later? Backbone JS is the first that comes to mind.
Everybody was using it, but since then, it's pretty much fallen by the wayside and there is still a ton of Backbone code out there that needs maintaining until those projects can transition to something else.
Having a larger enterprise company maintain a library like Typescript when you know its going to be stable and maintained for some time as opposed to a smaller library where the creator just decides to pack it up and leave everybody hanging just seems like a smarter move to me.
The last few commits appear more about cleaning up some of the documentation.
I guess on Jeremy Ashkenas twitter feed he called Backbone "finished" in terms of API and feature set after the 1.0 version. When you look at the contributions graph, its practically non-existent: https://github.com/jashkenas/backbone/graphs/contributors
Then when you look at the other libraries in the ecosystem, its like a ghost town.
backbone.forms - Open Issues: 172, Issues closed in 2016: 14, Last Release: Jan 21, 2016
backbone.localstorage - Open Issues: 45, Issues closed in 2016: 1, Last Release: Jan 22 2015
backbone.paginator - Open Issues: 20, Issues closed in 2016: 7+, Last Release: Feb 3 2016
backbone.validation -Open Issues: 79, Issues closed in 2016: 1, Last Release: May 8 2015
So not only is interest waning, the creator has called the library "finished" with not much more in terms of features coming and the ecosystem surrounding Backbone has all but dried up. I would be hard pressed to say it still has a bright future.
Azure is the obvious one.
Enterprise Javascript is basically:
1. Javascript is probably the most popular programming language at the moment (or at least top 3).
2. Since the creation of Node Javascript has entered the realm of back end services applications.
3. There's a lot of Javascript being written these days, and those lines of code will have to be maintained.
4. A large enterprise will need good tools from a solid, respected vendor, preferably one that has a great image in the developer community.
5. These tools, Open Source but beefed up with enterprise extensions, will cost $$$.
Microsoft was losing the back end completely, on the long term. It has already lost the frond end: web, Android, iOS. Now it's clawing its way back with its back end stacks or at least with tools meant for Open Source stacks.
Mark my words, after this huge flurry of development to mark Visual Studio Code as the leading cross platform "light IDE" (ahead of Sublime, Atom and maybe even ahead of some "heavy IDEs" such as Eclipse or Netbeans), Microsoft will release proprietary extensions, especially things targeting big enterprises.
In my eyes, this is a win-win situation. Microsoft still makes money, developers don't get EEEd like in the bad old 90s, etc.