Does Visual Studio Online need Node.js, .Net Core or .Net Framework to be installed on your machine to debug and run?

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I'm interested in installing and starting up a Visual Studio Online project in my browser (Chrome) on my Macbook Air.

My project is an Angular App (7+) with a .Net Core Web Api backend and an older .Net Framework project that the .Net Core app connects to over HTTP when I need to send a document over a WCP (SOAP) connection to a web service. So when I need to test the .Net Framework part I switch over to a PC and run/debug the website, but I only need to test that occasionally so I mainly use my Macbook for development.

QUESTION - I'd like to see if I can get this project running/developing in Visual Studio Online on my Macbook's browser (Chrome), but I'm not sure how it works regarding .Net Core and .Net Framework? Do I need to have these SDK's installed on my machine or is everything installed/tested/run through the cloud?

.net-core azure-devops .net
1 Answers

No, your machine doesn't need any dev tools, all compute and storage related to development happens in a cloud environment (read: docker containers).

If I were to elaborate, VS Online is built around decoupling front-ends (i.e. Desktop VS (although in private preview), VS Code or Browser-based Visual Studio Online experience) and backends - containers that are created and managed for you in Azure (you also have an option to DIY tricky setups or self-host on-prem).

At environment creation time, you have option to point to a git repository and VS Online will try to figure out your dependencies and configure everything.

One potential gotcha to point out: as far as I am aware the service itself is free, but to unlock full benefit you will need an Azure subscription - running environments seems to be billed at normal Azure rates.

UPD having examined my instance of VS online and further checked the docs, I must conclude, these are not full fat VMs but rather Linux docker containers that back your experience. So running windows applications inside environments is probably a no go. (you can sign up for private preview of Windows Containers, but as of now - only Linux is publicly available)

From what I gathered off your question, it seems you're mostly looking at this for debugging you windows application remotely, which likely leaves you with an option to run a windows VM somewhere and try something along the lines of this SO answer. But it seems there are quite a few limitation which will probably make it even worse for you as mac user.

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