Is MAUI the Future of .NET?  Preview 4 now Available! 
Tags: dotnet, xamarinforms, xamarin, discuss
Published: 2021-03-28 20:23:01

BREAKING NEWS… Microsoft announces today, 5.25.2021, the MAUI Preview 4 availability.  
What's a preview? Each MAUI preview introduces more features and controls for the newest multi-platform toolkit, and general availability is set to go live this November.  .NET MAUI now has enough controls and features to build functional applications for all the supported platforms, new support capabilities for Blazor on the desktop and Visual Studio support progress.  


Most know that Maui is the second-largest Hawaiian Island also known as the "The Valley Isle", known for its world-famous beaches. The newest .NET feature will soon become a world-famous platform, the future of cross-platform app development! .NET Multi-Platform App UI (MAUI) is the next advancement of cross-platform UI solutions for .NET developers.

## Where, Who?
Any .NET developer can .NET Maui anywhere from Pittsburgh, PA to California, to Japan, to Germany, to Senegal back to the beautiful Maui Island. The .NET MAUI simplifies the alternatives for .NET developers, providing a single stack for all modern workloads: (think macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS. The native features for each platform and UI control in a simple, cross-platform API to deliver no-compromise user experiences while sharing more code than before.


## Wait, Why? 
Wait, why use .NET MAUI when we have Xamarin (and Xamarin has only been around for 7 years)? Xamarin technologies is genuinely a fan-favorite by developers everywhere. For .NET developers, Xamarin has provided one of the easiest ways to make cross-platform apps and share code. The Xamarin teams and community are always available for feedback, code-cheats with a passion for making the product better. Does this mean the sunset of Xamarin? With the advent of .NET MAUI, some may be sad to see the sunset for the beloved Xamarin brand.

## Say What?
.NET MAUI is the evolution of Xamarin.Forms. It is extended from mobile to desktop scenarios with UI controls rebuilt from the ground up for performance and extensibility.

.NET MAUI holds much promise towards a top-notch consistent UI framework for .NET developers to build cross-platform native apps for mobile and desktop. 

## How??!
In a sea-shell (see what I did there?) MAUI is:
* Cross-Platform, Native UI
* Single Project, Single Code Base 
* Deployment to multiple devices, mobile, and desktop <b>
* An evolution of Xamarin.Forms
* Targeting .NET 6, previews end of year 
* Visual Studio Code Support, in addition to Visual Studio on Windows or Visual Studio for MAC on macOS 
* Simplified tooling for developer productivity (think of it as a single point of inspiration-a single SDK-style project 
* Open-Sourced 

## When?
The target general consumption with .NET 6 (November of 2021). 
Current Current development is happening in xamarin/xamarin.forms and continues to ship stable releases through the smooth and seamless .NET 6 transition to .NET MAUI.

## The Next Wave is Coming Soon!

<b> Complete! NET MAUI in .NET 6 Preview 3 (Early 2021) <b>

Highlights Include:
* The second batch of controls and layouts
* Brushes
* Shapes
* Lifecycle Events

<b> Complete! .NET MAUI in .NET 6 Preview 4 (Mid 2021)<b>

Highlights Include:
* The third batch of controls and layouts
* Window desktop support

<b>.NET MAUI in .NET 6 preview 5 (Mid 2021)<b>
* Highlights are not released

<b>.NET MAUI in .NET 6 Release Candidate (September 2021) <b>

<b>.NET MAUI General Availablity (November 2021)<b>

Will you be an early adopter, on dawn patrol for the newest .NET MAUI?

Aloha!