Build 2020 - Day 1 Overview

So, Day 1 of BUILD 2020 is behind us now, here are a few of the most exciting announcements (for me) and links to more details

Tooling

Visual Studio 2019 16.6 and 16.7 preview1

Two new Visual Studio releases available for download today, the latest stable 16.6 with improvements in productivity, web tools and other, as well as the preview 16.7 which brings support for the new WinUI 3.

Terminal 1.0 GA

The Windows Terminal is now out of preview and stable for
enterprise use.

WSL 2

Latest version of WSL that comes with an overhauled architecture and major performance gains. In the future you’ll even be able to run GUI Linux apps directly in Windows. You’ll need to be on the latest, insider version or Win 10 - Version 2004, Build 19041 or higher.

Code spaces

Visual Studio Code Spaces (previously known as Visual Studio Online) enables developers to work remotely from anywhere with
fully configured cloud-hosted development environments that can be created in minutes. The new version comes with lower pricing and more features, including a GitHub integration where you can create an environment based on a git repo.

HTTP REPL

For every Postman/Newman lover out there, here’s a new cool alternative. I’m very curious to see how this will change my development flow. And of course it’s open source

WinGet

With the new Package Manager for Windows it’s easier than ever to set up a brand new machine to your spec, in minutes. Really curious to find out how this will work with or against Chocolatey

Azure

Azure Static Web Apps

Absolutely amazing update from Azure Web Apps. Super simple no-code static web app deployment straight from GitHub, using GitHub Actions. Never been easier to deploy your React/Angular/Vue, or any JAMstack website on azure.
If that wasn’t enough, you get free automatic SSL cert when you add a custom domain.

Only works with GitHub hosted repos for now.

Session Recording

Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Synapse Link

HTAP, or Hybrid Transactional and Analytical Processing is a new capability in Azure Cosmos DB that combines the existing Transactional (OLTP) characteristics with Analytical (OLAP) right into the platform itself. You can now automatically have Cosmos DB generate and maintain an analytics dedicated container based on your transactional container that can be hooked up to Azure Synapse via the new Azure Synapse Link to perform near real-time analytics and dashboards based on your data.

Session recording

Azure Cosmos DB Autoscale

The latest incarnation of Cosmos DB’s automatic scaling system (previously known as Autopilot) is now ready for use. Never worry about paying too much on your Cosmos DB account, or getting those nasty 429s and slow response times.

Windows / Apps

.NET 5 and EF.Core 5 preview 4

Project Reunion

Project Reunion makes it easier to build a great Windows app by providing a unified platform for new and existing Win32 and UWP apps. It will unify access to existing Win32 and UWP APIs and make them available decoupled from the OS, via tools like NuGet.

Multi Platform App UI (MAUI)

The next evolution of Xamarin.Forms, allows you to build cross-platform native UIs in a single project. Will only be Generaly Available for .NET 6, but in preview now.