Within the next 3 years (before 2021 deadline for SL5) we're going to migrate our SL5 web app to something else. Currently there is NOTHING on the web application side that can emulate the robust features of SL5 (specifically OOB mode), so we're going
to move to desktop and currently favoring WPF.
80% of our SL5 web application is web services and database back-end on AWS, so the SL5 UI is only about 20% of the project ... so not the end of the world to move just the UI and the UI was coded using MVVM so in theory it should be easier to migrate to
something else that is binding based.
I've researched WPF, it's very similar to SL5 on the UI side but obviously it is a Windows concentric desktop app. WinRT appears to be dead and UWP is bound to Windows 10 (60% or our clients are still Windows 7) and the Microsoft Store so not a viable
option. Also appears that Windows Forms is dead too (or close to dead). When I say "dead" I mean not a good choice for getting some longevity (if that's even possible these days with Microsoft inability to evolve platforms in favor of
dumping one tech then and starting new one) out of a desktop platform.
We're a small development shop so we can't afford to keep re-tooling our software developments efforts every 1-2 years for the "flavor-of-the-day" development platform with no guarantee of future stability and support. Not to mention our
clients simply will NOT pay for such "flavor-of-the-day" platforms that provide no benefit to them ... we need to make money for my company, not for Microsoft (we've already paid Microsoft over $100,000 over the years to buy their MSDN subscription).
I've heard that WPF may also be on it's way out, so this leaves me wondering what I can use for Desktop Application that supports Win7,8,10+ and will have some longevity? UWP is Win10 only.
Thoughts?
Cheers, Rob.
