When I asked what he planned to do next, de Icaza told me “I am going to rest while the kids are in school” and later vacation with them. “Living in this industry is like the kid at the candy store - too many things are happening and there are too many choices. So I want to spend some time sampling some of the candy, and then deciding which one I want to buy a pound of,” de Icaza said. He did say he’s about 99 percent sure that he’ll be going the startup route. “If I wanted to work for a big company, I would have stayed here (at Microsoft). It is awesome here,” he added. “I learned a lot, it was good, but I do miss the startup world, and building and running a team - which I have not been doing here in this role.” I’ve asked Microsoft when de Icaza’s last day at the company will be and who, if anyone, will replace him. No word back so far. Microsoft was rumored to be on the cusp of buying Xamarin in 2014. The appeal was in Xamarin’s technology, which allowed developers using Microsoft’s C# to write native apps for not just Windows, but also iOS, Android and Mac. Microsoft actually acquired Xamarin in 2016. (Thanks to Brad Sams for a heads-up tweet on de Icaza’s planned departure.)
