> It's just the amount of money spent on Windows/Microsoft for small companies is rather large, compared to other alternatives that are just as good.
This is a complete mis-perception about the modern ecosystem.We have a full team using C# at a series-C, YC startup with every developer on Macs (some on Beelinks and Linux). The team is using a mix of VS Code, Cursor, and Rider. We deploy to Linux container instances in GKE on Google Cloud running Postgres.
There is no more tie in to Microsoft licensing than there is say for TypeScript. Yes, C# DevKit is licensed like VS, but if you don't need the features, then you can also use DotRush or just use the free C# Extension.