For a long time, WPF was considered the standard when it came to developing (Windows) desktop applications with C#. Even today, the framework is still very popular despite the limited further development by Microsoft and the platform lock-in to Windows. It is time to think about possible alternative frameworks. These can be used as the target of a migration of existing applications or as the basis for new applications.

One of these alternatives is the cross-platform UI framework Avalonia. It has many similarities to WPF - It uses XAML, prefers the MVVM pattern, comes with a visual designer and can be adapted to individual visual requirements using styles. It runs on all common desktop platforms (Windows, Linux, macOS) and also supports Android, iOS and browsers (via WebAssembly). It also offers various improvements over WPF, such as CompiledBinding.

In this presentation, I would like to discuss the differences between WPF and Avalonia and show how WPF developers can easily get started with the framework. I will also bring along various sample applications that we can use to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the framework.