[mjt0229]

Here's the problem: it's too expensive to learn on my own, and I can't advocate for C#, F# or Mono without already being an expert. Yes, I am a professional software engineer, and I support my family that way. But I have other expenses and interests, too, and blowing money on a compiler/IDE/platform just so I can play with it in my spare time doesn't really work for me.

Think of it another way: how do you plan to grow the next generation of engineers if they can't afford your technology to learn on, but they can download a JDK and a good Scala IDE for free?

Moreover, I'm not sure how you're arriving at a 10% productivity gain without knowing what I'm already working on. It may be 10% compared to Objective C for iOS, but is it 10% for my server-side Scala project?

[keithwarren]

30 days. 100% Risk Free, Unconditional money back guarantee.

Lets just get expense out of the way because that argument is actually invalid. For professional devs like us, if you cannot learn something new enough to make a decision on it - in 30 days, then we have bigger problems than license fees.

If that is the case for you then money is not the issue, it is time. Having 30 free days for me to spend learning a tech is a unicorn, it does not exist.

I understand your frustration because there are so many amazing techs out there I wish I had the time to learn but just don't. I made the decision to invest my time in Xamarin when I realized that the custom mobile dev market is slowly eating the custom web appdev market I was doing so well in. I made a conscious decision to make a bet on Xamarin (mainly because I knew C# very well) because I saw value in their approach vs others.

I have been very successful financially in my career so it could be that I look at time and money different than others, especially college students learning CS, but my statements were aimed at pro devs.

(an aside, I think Xamarin offers very steep discounts to students)

[mjt0229]

Maybe the tacit assumption here is that I'm doing development for Android and iOS; I'm currently interested in neither, although I do think F# is a compelling language and I'd love to be able to advocate for it at my workplace. However, given the fact that we're a Linux shop, Xamarin has made it really hard to push for Mono/F# as an alternative to Scala.

[keithwarren]

Another thing that colors my perspective - I have been on my own for 15 years. I don't have to consider the company, legacy or other devs in the shop. It is me, whom I choose to sub-contract to and what jobs I choose to take on. There is a level of freedom in that I often take for granted.

[jaegerpicker]

Right and as an independent dev Xamarin makes a mertic SHIT ton of sense, though once Ruby Motion has Android I'd argue that is a way better value. But as a guy working a day job hoping to bootstrap a startup/indie game on my nights and weekends $600-$2000 is ALOT of dough to drop, Ruby motion is $200 and I can swing that without much of a second thought, honestly I could swing $600-$2000 is within my range also I mean I'm extremely lucky in my salary compared to the rest of the world but it's A LOT harder to justify on top of a $3000 macbook pro retina, an intellij license, and the rest of my day used dev tools. Not trying to attack you on your stance I just would love Xamarin to rearrange their pricing to something that makes sense for different markets. I know that $20 a month plus 15-20% of app profits or something more flexible may make them much more popular with certain crowds.

[WorldWideWayne]

Here's what I would do if I wanted to learn these tools really well before paying for them: Grab a VM and make a snapshot right before I install the 30 day trial and then just reset to the snapshot every 30 days and reinstall the trial.

You can do the same thing with a trial of Windows which actually lasts anywhere from 90 to 180 days or something.