Avalonia XPF
Avalonia XPF is our first commercial product, offering a solution for modernising existing WPF applications. It streamlines the process of enabling existing WPF apps to run on multiple platforms, significantly reducing the time, costs and risks of a traditional port. This proprietary solution allows us to efficiently help organisations expand their WPF applications' reach.
Why did we create XPF?
The origins of XPF stem from our extensive experience in professional services, where we specialized in porting WPF applications to Avalonia for cross-platform compatibility. While this service was profitable and met our clients' needs for macOS and Linux support, we recognized fundamental inefficiencies in this approach.
Our professional services work, though successful, presented several challenges. The projects were time-intensive, offered modest margins, and left intellectual property in the hands of our clients. Most significantly, these lengthy porting projects consumed resources that could have been directed toward enhancing Avalonia's core capabilities. We found ourselves in a situation where our success in professional services was paradoxically hindering our ability to innovate and improve our core technology. The majority of our development time was spent recreating existing applications rather than pushing the boundaries of what was possible with our platform.
This realization led us to what might seem like an audacious solution: making WPF itself cross-platform. XPF emerged from our desire to give customers a more efficient path to cross-platform deployment without requiring months of code rewriting. It was an ambitious undertaking, but one that aligned perfectly with our goal of helping customers preserve their existing investments while enabling them to expand to new platforms.
By creating XPF, we transformed our approach from labor-intensive porting services to providing a scalable product that empowers customers to handle their own cross-platform transitions more efficiently. This shift has allowed us to refocus our efforts on core platform innovation while better serving our customers' needs.
When to recommend XPF
XPF serves a specific and important purpose, to enable organisations to modernise existing WPF investments. While we've seen remarkable successes across diverse applications, we maintain a focused approach to recommending our solution.
Our Ideal Customer Profile
XPF is specifically designed for organizations with existing investments in WPF applications seeking to expand to cross-platform deployment. These companies typically have significant codebases, established development teams familiar with WPF, and a strategic need to support multiple operating systems while preserving their existing investment.
Qualifying Criteria
The strongest candidates for XPF adoption share several characteristics: they have mature WPF applications, a development team experienced with XAML and .NET, and a clear business requirement for cross-platform support. Success stories often come from organizations that want to maintain a single codebase while deploying to Windows, macOS, and Linux.
When Not to Recommend XPF
We take a principled stance against recommending XPF for greenfield projects. When a customer is starting fresh without existing WPF investment, we advocate for them to explore Avalonia or another modern cross-platform frameworks. This position might mean turning down potential sales, but it builds trust and aligns with our commitment to customer success.
Understanding Customer Context
Success with XPF often depends on thoroughly understanding the customer's current situation. Consider factors such as:
- The maturity and complexity of their existing WPF application
- Their team's current technical capabilities and familiarity with WPF
- The urgency of their cross-platform requirements
- Their maintenance and development resource constraints
By maintaining this clear focus on existing WPF applications seeking cross-platform capabilities, we ensure that our recommendations align with scenarios where XPF can deliver the most value.
