I disagree that it never really was alive. It was quite alive for many more years than I was aware of it. And then it ended like it hit a wall. When the VB6 partisans were voting for MS to bring back VB6 over on Microsofts User Voice forum, they liked to note how many votes they got, but they were something like third. Far ahead of them was bringing back XNA. It was also popular enough that MonoGame took over XNA immediately and began to extend it.

Having thought it over for a time, I believe that it really is time to cut loose of FW4.0 overall. I was astonished at how easy it was to move from XNA to MonoGame, and getting a vibrant, active, community rather than a download that couldn't readily be added to any VS instance beyond 2010 would be good. A painless transition makes it easier.

The other reason I wasn't moving on is that some of the development was being done on a Surface Pro 2. When I bought that device, I spec'd it out to match the computer I had at work such that anything that ran well on that would run well on the computers I was targeting. I had some processor intensive stuff, so that was reasonable at the time. Technically, VS2019 will run on the setup I have on that Surface, but it's less than the recommended hardware, especially for RAM. I bought that Surface so I could work on stuff while going on a month-long bike ride of an odd sort. Now, I have good reason to upgrade to either a Surface Pro 6 or 7, because I'm contemplating an even stranger bike ride for the spring. The new Surface Pro devices are even better suited for bike packing than the 2 was, so I can get one with better specs in every way (better keyboard, bigger screen, lighter weight, MUCH longer battery life, more power, and considerably more RAM) cause I'll have something nutty to do, again.