In today's technology, it is very hard not to notice a device not using a Microsoft software. Microsoft wants to broaden its turf that is why the tech giant will acquire Xamarin, a company that makes tools the help developers use Microsoft programming language C# to develop application that can run on Android, iOS, Linux and OS X as well.
As reported by The Register, Satya Nadella said the company is now focusing on a cross-platform mobile approach. This will create stronger versions of applications like office that runs on both Android and iOS and also their Windows 10 mobile it is the company's goal to branch out due to the dense population of developers leaning on Android and iOS.
According to Scott Guthrie of Microsoft, Xamarin and the company have a longstanding partnership having built together Xamarin integration into visual studio Microsft Azure, Office 365 and the Enterprise Mobility Suite, as per Forbes.
Wired noted it has been the tradition of Microsoft to support its local programming tools but since a lot of developers want to use C# and Micrcosoft's .NET's framework on Linux, which is why a company called Ximian-created Mono, a clone version of .NET. With this, developers can use the C# operating on other systems aside from Windows.
In 2003, Ximian was acquired by a software company called Novell but the entire team was lid off after Novell was acquired by Attachmate. This pushed Ximian team to create the Xamarin to continue its works on the mono and continue making tools for mobile developers.
This method of acquisition of one company with another is not new in the industry and its not only Microsoft that's doing it. Only last year, Apple has also sourced its programming language Swift for it to be used in any platforms. It has even plans to make the Swift available for Linux.
