The .NET Framework established in 2000 has undergone continuous improvements over the years.
Hitherto, the main development was focused on:
- Expanding the range of applications supported by the .NET framework
- Developing WinForms and ASP.NET
- Adding JavaScript and other libraries to the framework
The .NET Core, launched in 2015 signifies a radical shift from such incremental evolution. .NET Core is a cross-platform fork of the Windows-only .NET Framework and a major path-breaking innovation. For Microsoft, .NET Core is its future development platform. This doesn’t indicate that the current .NET framework is set to disappear. The new .NET Core is born out of the “need and desire to have a modern runtime that is modular and whose features and libraries can be cherry picked”. The .NET Core 1.0 version was launched in June 2016 which is an open source, cross-platform and modular framework that enables developers to build modern web applications, libraries, consoles, and micro-services applications. The emergence of the .NET Core raises questions on the future of the traditional .NET Framework. So how does the future of Microsoft .NET look like? Check out this infographic for more insights.