Best of Microsoft — July 2025

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    Article
    Avatar of aiAI·44w

    Microsoft won the AI game before it even started

    Microsoft has already won the AI competition not through superior technology, but by leveraging their classic bundling strategy. While competitors like Cursor and Claude Code may offer better standalone AI tools, Microsoft is integrating Copilot across their entire ecosystem including GitHub, VS Code, Azure, Office, and Teams. This gives them automatic distribution through existing enterprise relationships, allowing them to capture business deals even when developers prefer other tools.

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    Video
    Avatar of davesgarageDave's Garage·45w

    Microsoft Layoffs: 9000 workers let go, 14000 H1B visas requested

    Microsoft laid off 9,000 employees while requesting 14,000 H1B visas, but these actions target different roles and aren't directly related. The layoffs primarily affected sales and middle management positions, while H1B visas are for technical roles that can't be filled by US applicants. The hiring process for H1B workers requires extensive documentation and proof that domestic candidates aren't available. At 3% of Microsoft's workforce, these layoffs are relatively small compared to historical reductions.

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    Article
    Avatar of bartwullemsThe Art of Simplicity·46w

    Getting started with AI development in .NET

    Microsoft's AI Dev Gallery is an open-source Windows application that helps developers integrate AI capabilities into their .NET projects. It features over 25 interactive samples powered by local AI models, allows easy downloading of models from Hugging Face and GitHub, and provides C# source code with the ability to export standalone Visual Studio projects. The app includes sections for samples, models, and Windows AI APIs, making it a comprehensive starting point for AI development on Windows.

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    Article
    Avatar of dotnet.NET Blog·45w

    .NET 10 Preview 6 is now available!

    .NET 10 Preview 6 introduces enhancements across the runtime, SDK, and libraries including strict JSON serialization options, post-quantum cryptography support, platform-specific .NET tools, and one-shot tool execution. ASP.NET Core and Blazor receive improvements like automatic memory pool eviction, WebAssembly preloading, passkey support for Identity, and better form validation. .NET MAUI adds MediaPicker enhancements and WebView request interception, while Android support extends to API levels 35 and 36. Windows Forms, WPF, and Entity Framework Core focus on quality improvements and build performance optimizations.

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    Article
    Avatar of devblogsDevBlogs·45w

    Microsoft for Python Developers Blog

    Microsoft released July 2025 updates for Python, Pylance, and Jupyter extensions in VS Code. Key changes include the Python Environments extension being bundled as an optional dependency with enhanced environment management features like one-click setup and automatic terminal activation. PyREPL has been disabled for Python 3.13+ due to indentation and cursor issues. Additional improvements include better Poetry support, automatic git-ignore for .venv folders, improved environment deletion, and experimental MCP tools in Pylance.

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    Article
    Avatar of collectionsCollections·46w

    Microsoft's Telemetry in Go Build: Enhancing Developer Tools

    Microsoft introduces telemetry collection in its Go build version 1.25 to gather anonymized usage data for improving developer tools and prioritizing roadmap items. The telemetry is enabled by default but can be disabled via environment variable. Microsoft's Go build maintains FIPS 140-3 compliance for regulated environments and is used internally in Azure Linux and Docker images. The collected data will drive feature development and performance optimizations while respecting user privacy through anonymization.

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    Article
    Avatar of devblogsDevBlogs·43w

    Building AI Agents with the A2A .NET SDK

    Microsoft announces the A2A .NET SDK, implementing the Agent2Agent protocol for building collaborative AI agents. The SDK enables .NET developers to create agents that can discover each other's capabilities, communicate through messages or tasks, and support real-time streaming. The tutorial demonstrates building a simple echo agent with ASP.NET Core integration, showing both synchronous and asynchronous communication patterns. The SDK strengthens the AI ecosystem by providing standardized agent-to-agent communication, particularly benefiting Azure AI Foundry and Semantic Kernel users.

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