It's almost as if Microsoft doesn't want developers
It's hard to fathom why Microsoft sets the bar so high to software development on Windows. Between killing third-party tools and raising the price (and complexity!) of their own bloated offering, I get the feeling they're trying to lock out everyone but the developers who *have* to develop for Windows and those who see a bigger reward for Windows programs.
Just today I had to quickly write a simple GUI to control some weird USB devices we received. Although I have a VS licence, it was quicker and easier to install Linux in a VM and use Qt and libusb to develop an application. Total time: about 4 hours. Why must every bit of code in Windows turn into a huge, fscking development project? Even OSX is easy by comparison.