Does anyone have a prediction when .NET Core will be extended to include UI? I find this lack is the most confounding aspect of MSFTs strategy. Is Xamarin really it?
MSFT strategy is to develop a lightweight, cross-platform .NET runtime that can be hosted on Linux/Windows on Azure - that's where their ROI lies and where their .NET Core investments are focused. Their mobile/cloud approach is about using Xamarin to develop iOS/Android Apps that connect to backend Services hosted on Azure. Although they won't mind if you use Swift or Java to develop native iOS Apps or deploy on Linux - just as long as you host your backend Services on Azure.
There's very little incentive for them to invest in making a cross-platform Desktop UI, most x-plat UI's suck and requires significant resources and offer little return given the most popular UI's are either Web/Mobile - which they've already got covered.
I'd expect the most likely UI for .NET Core is to host a .NET Core runtime with a cross-platform web-based shell using something like Electron or CEF.
Microsoft acknowledged that using windows as a server is a big handicap for many companies. Making server-side .net components cross platform allows some to use their stack and maybe purchase other products like sql server.
However, the last thing microsoft wants is to make it possible for popular applications and games to run on other OSes. Hey, they need to sell you windows licenses.
There's very little incentive for them to invest in making a cross-platform Desktop UI, most x-plat UI's suck and requires significant resources and offer little return given the most popular UI's are either Web/Mobile - which they've already got covered.
I'd expect the most likely UI for .NET Core is to host a .NET Core runtime with a cross-platform web-based shell using something like Electron or CEF.