Same here, on all accounts. QBasic's internal help was the first manual I had ever read

C# support in IntelliJ would be a dream come true!

(yes, I know about ReSharper - but that's just lipstick on a pig)

Pig? VS is considered one of the best IDEs out there. On par, if not better than IntelliJ.

If it was better, it would not need ReSharper.

I use both on a daily basis, and VS + Resharper beats the crap out of IntelliJ, IMO. My opinion might be different if I had to pay for my licenses, but independent of cost, VS wins.

They couldn't have done it that fast. They just couldn't do it while Ballmer was there - not after his anti-OSS rants.

And he knew it.

When I tried the public preview, my heart sank when I saw that "Store" icon in the start screen.

The new UI I can deal with or customise - I've been developing since DOS, I'm sure I can get used to it. But please don't remove the very reason Windows became so popular: a relatively open ecosystem.

As a result of that (and the destruction of VS), my personal projects are no longer under Windows, and my career is also shifting away from it.

I'm not anti-MS - I was once their biggest cheerleader. I just don't like their direction.

If having a store inside windows that becomes popular enough, there would be potential for windows to become free to install/use.. (hey pigs could fly) Would that alleviate concerns about it?

The licence cost for Windows isn't exactly prohibitive (for the home user).

That's an excellent point, however.

Familiarity, for a start. It was raised during the public preview and beta.

If "performance is a consideration", then don't encrypt everything

Keeps the changes to a minimum, reducing the risk of effecting anything else. (quicker + safer)