.NET#.NET Core

{{see also|C Sharp (programming language)#History|.NET Framework#History}}

In the late 1990s, Microsoft began developing a managed code runtime and programming language (C#) which it billed together as part of the ".NET platform", with the core runtime and software libraries comprising the .NET Framework.

At the heart of the .NET Platform is the .NET Framework, a high-productivity, multilanguage development and execution environment for building and running Web services with important features such as cross-language inheritance and debugging.{{cite web|url=https://news.microsoft.com/2000/07/11/microsoft-delivers-first-net-platform-developer-tools-for-building-web-services/|title=Microsoft Delivers First .NET Platform Developer Tools for Building Web Services|date=July 11, 2000|access-date=November 5, 2023}}

Soon after the announcement of the C# language at the Professional Developers Conference in 2000 and previews of its software became available, Microsoft began a standardization effort through ECMA for what it dubbed the Common Language Infrastructure. The company continued development and support of its own implementation as proprietary, closed source software in the meantime.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}

On November 12, 2014, Microsoft introduced .NET Core—an open-source, cross-platform{{cite web|title=.NET Core is the Future of .NET |date=May 6, 2019 |url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/net-core-is-the-future-of-net/}} successor{{cite web|title=.NET Framework is dead – long live .NET 5|date=May 7, 2019 |url=https://betanews.com/2019/05/07/future-of-dotnet/}} to .NET Framework—and released source code for the .NET Core CoreCLR implementation, source for the "entire [...] library stack" for .NET Core,{{Cite web |title=Why a .NET Development Company Could Be the Perfect Boost {{!}} Pangea.ai |url=https://www.pangea.ai/resources/net/ |access-date=2022-12-08 |website=www.pangea.ai |language=en-US}} and announced the adoption of a conventional ("bazaar"-like) open-source development model under the stewardship of the .NET Foundation. Miguel de Icaza describes .NET Core as a "redesigned version of .NET that is based on the simplified version of the class libraries",{{cite web|title=Microsoft Open Sources .NET and Mono|first=Miguel|last=de Icaza|author-link=Miguel de Icaza|url=http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2014/Nov-12.html|website=Personal blog of Miguel de Icaza|access-date=November 16, 2014}} and Microsoft's Immo Landwerth explained that .NET Core would be "the foundation of all future .NET platforms". At the time of the announcement, the initial release of the .NET Core project had been seeded with a subset of the libraries' source code and coincided with the relicensing of Microsoft's existing .NET reference source away from the restrictions of the Ms-RSL. Landwerth acknowledged the disadvantages of the formerly selected shared license, explaining that it made codename Rotor "a non-starter" as a community-developed open source project because it did not meet the criteria of an Open Source Initiative (OSI) approved license.{{cite web|title=.NET Core is Open Source|url=https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2014/11/12/net-core-is-open-source/|website=.NET Framework Blog|publisher=Microsoft|access-date=December 30, 2014|date=November 12, 2014|first=Immo|last=Landwerth}}{{cite web|title=dotnet/corefx|url=https://github.com/dotnet/corefx|publisher=GitHub|access-date=November 16, 2014}}{{cite web|title=Microsoft/referencesource|url=https://github.com/Microsoft/referencesource|publisher=GitHub|access-date=November 16, 2014}}

{{Not a typo|.NET Core}} 1.0 was released on June 27, 2016,{{cite web|last1=Bright|first1=Peter|title=.NET Core 1.0 released, now officially supported by Red Hat|url=https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/net-core-1-0-released-now-officially-supported-by-red-hat/|website=Ars Technica|publisher=Condé Nast|date=June 27, 2016}} along with Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Update 3, which enables .NET Core development.{{cite web|last1=Foley|first1=Mary Jo|title=Microsoft showcases SQL Server, .NET Core on Red Hat Enterprise Linux deliverables|url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-showcases-sql-server-net-core-on-red-hat-enterprise-linux-deliverables/|website=ZDNet|publisher=CBS Interactive|date=June 27, 2016}} {{Not a typo|.NET Core}} 1.0.4 and .NET Core 1.1.1 were released along with .NET Core Tools 1.0 and Visual Studio 2017 on March 7, 2017.{{cite web|url=https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2017/03/07/announcing-net-core-tools-1-0/ |title=Announcing .NET Core Tools 1.0 {{pipe}} .NET Blog |date=March 7, 2017 |publisher=Blogs.msdn.microsoft.com |access-date=January 18, 2020}}

.NET Core 2.0 was released on August 14, 2017, along with Visual Studio 2017 15.3, ASP.NET Core 2.0, and Entity Framework Core 2.0.{{cite web|title=Announcing .NET Core 2.0|url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-net-core-2-0/|work=.NET Blog|publisher=Microsoft|date=August 14, 2017}} {{Not a typo|.NET Core}} 2.1 was released on May 30, 2018.{{cite web|title=Announcing .NET Core 2.1|url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-net-core-2-1/|work=.NET Blog|publisher=Microsoft|date=May 30, 2018}} NET Core 2.2 was released on December 4, 2018.{{cite web|title=Announcing .NET Core 2.2|url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-net-core-2-2/|work=.NET Blog|publisher=Microsoft|date=December 4, 2018}}

.NET Core 3 was released on September 23, 2019.{{cite web|url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/net-core-is-the-future-of-net/|title=.NET Core is the Future of .NET|date=May 6, 2019|website=.NET Blog|language=en-US|access-date=May 17, 2019}} NET Core 3 adds support for Windows desktop application development{{Cite web|url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/whats-new/dotnet-core-3-0#windows-desktop--com|title=What's new in .NET Core 3.0|website=.NET documentation|language=en-US|access-date=December 30, 2020}} and significant performance improvements throughout the base library.

In November 2020, Microsoft released .NET 5.0.{{Cite web |date=November 10, 2020 |title=Announcing .NET 5.0 |url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-net-5-0/ |access-date=November 21, 2020 |website=.NET Blog |language=en-US}} The "Core" branding was abandoned and version 4.0 was skipped to avoid conflation with .NET Framework, of which the latest releases had all used 4.x versioning for all significant (non-bugfix) releases since 2010.

It addresses the patent concerns related to the .NET Framework {{Citation needed|date=September 2023|reason=One-sentence conclusions to (potentially) complex legal issues should be supported with appropriate citations}}.

In November 2021, Microsoft released .NET 6.0,{{Cite web |last=Lander |first=Richard |date=2021-11-08 |title=Announcing .NET 6 – The Fastest .NET Yet |url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-net-6/ |access-date=2022-05-06 |website=.NET Blog |language=en-US}} in November 2022 released .NET 7.0,{{Cite web |last=Douglas |first=Jon |date=2022-11-08 |title=.NET 7 is Available Today |url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-dotnet-7/ |access-date=2024-01-13 |website=.NET Blog |language=en-US}} in November 2023 released .NET 8.0,{{Cite web |last=Seth |first=Gaurav |date=2023-11-14 |title=Announcing .NET 8 |url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-dotnet-8/ |access-date=2024-01-13 |website=.NET Blog |language=en-US}} and in November 2024 released .NET 9.0.{{Cite web |date=November 12, 2024 |title=Announcing .NET 9 |url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-dotnet-9/ |access-date=November 12, 2024 |website=.NET Blog |language=en-US}}

Alpine Linux, which primarily supports and uses musl libc,{{Cite web|title=Alpine 3.10.0 released {{!}} Alpine Linux|url=https://alpinelinux.org/posts/Alpine-3.10.0-released.html|access-date=June 9, 2020|website=alpinelinux.org}} is supported since .NET Core 2.1.{{Cite web|title=dotnet/core|url=https://github.com/dotnet/core|access-date=June 9, 2020|website=GitHub|language=en}}

Windows Arm64 is natively supported since .NET 5. Previously, .NET on ARM meant applications compiled for the x86 architecture and run through the ARM emulation layer.{{cite web|title=Announcing .NET 5.0|url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-net-5-0/|work=.NET Blog|publisher=Microsoft|date=November 10, 2020}}

Linux .NET runs on Power ISA to some extent since .NET 7, officially no support is claimed by Microsoft but .NET does contain code for Power ISA compatibility for Linux systems and is able to be compiled for Power ISA systems specifically 64 bit Little Endian variant.{{Cite web |last=Clingan |first=John |date=2022-11-08 |title=.NET 7 now available for RHEL and OpenShift |url=https://developers.redhat.com/articles/2022/11/08/net-7-now-available-rhel-and-openshift |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=Red Hat Developer |language=en}}

File:Overview of the Common Language Infrastructure 2015.svg (CLI).]]

.NET fully supports C# and F# (and C++/CLI as of 3.1; only enabled on Windows) and supports Visual Basic .NET (for version 15.5 in .NET Core 5.0.100-preview.4, and some old versions supported in old .NET Core).{{Cite web | url=https://aristeksystems.com/blog/top-3-dot-net-framework-trends-2021/#what-id-dot-net| title=.NET framework supports different programming languages | accessdate=2022-04-21}}

VB.NET compiles and runs on .NET, but as of .NET Core 3.1, the separate Visual Basic Runtime is not implemented. Microsoft initially announced that .NET Core 3 would include the Visual Basic Runtime, but after two years the timeline for such support was updated to .NET 5.{{cite web|url=https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/vbteam/2018/11/12/visual-basic-in-net-core-3-0/ |title=Visual Basic in .NET Core 3.0 {{pipe}} Visual Basic Blog |publisher=Blogs.msdn.microsoft.com |date=October 12, 2019 |access-date=January 18, 2020}}{{cite web|url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/vbteam/visual-basic-support-planned-for-net-5-0/ |title=Visual Basic support planned for .NET 5.0 {{pipe}} Visual Basic Blog |publisher=Blogs.msdn.microsoft.com |date=March 11, 2020 |access-date=August 26, 2020}}

{{main|Common Language Infrastructure}}

.NET supports the following cross-platform scenarios: ASP.NET Core web apps, command-line/console apps, libraries and Universal Windows Platform apps. Prior to .NET Core 3.0, it did not implement Windows Forms or Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), which render the standard GUI for desktop software on Windows.{{cite web |last1=Carter |first1=Phillip |last2=Knezevic |first2=Zlatko |title=.NET Core – .NET Goes Cross-Platform with .NET Core |url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/magazine/mt694084 |website=MSDN Magazine |publisher=Microsoft |date=April 2016 |volume=13 |number=4}} However, from .NET Core 3 on, it started implementing them along with Universal Windows Platform (UWP).{{cite web |last1=Lander |first1=Rich |title=.NET Core 3 and Support for Windows Desktop Applications |url=https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2018/05/07/net-core-3-and-support-for-windows-desktop-applications/ |website=MSDN |publisher=Microsoft |date=May 7, 2018}} It is also possible to write cross-platform graphical applications using .NET with the GTK# language-binding for the GTK widget toolkit.

.NET supports use of NuGet packages. Unlike .NET Framework, which is serviced using Windows Update, .NET used to rely on its package manager to receive updates. Since December 2020, however, .NET updates started being delivered via Windows Update as well.{{Cite web|date=December 3, 2020|title=.NET Core 2.1, 3.1, and .NET 5.0 updates are coming to Microsoft Update|url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/net-core-updates-coming-to-microsoft-update/|access-date=December 15, 2020|website=.NET Blog|language=en-US}}

The two main components of .NET are CoreCLR and CoreFX, which are comparable to the Common Language Runtime (CLR) and the Framework Class Library (FCL) of the .NET Framework's Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) implementation.{{Cite web|title=Understanding .NET Framework, .NET Core, .NET Standard And Future .NET|url=https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/blogs/understanding-net-framework-net-core-and-net-standard-and-future-net|access-date=February 1, 2021|website=www.c-sharpcorner.com|language=en}}

As an implementation of CLI's Virtual Execution System (VES), CoreCLR is a complete runtime and virtual machine for managed execution of CLI programs and includes a just-in-time compiler called RyuJIT.{{cite web |last1=Landwerth |first1=Immo |title=CoreCLR is now Open Source |url=https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2015/02/03/coreclr-is-now-open-source/ |website=.NET Framework Blog |publisher=Microsoft |access-date=February 27, 2015 |date=February 3, 2015}}{{efn|The prefix "Ryu" is the Japanese word for "dragon" ({{lang|ja|竜}}, {{transl|ja|ryū}}), and is a reference to the book Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (commonly known as the dragon book, from an early cover design), as well as to a character from the video game Street Fighter.{{cite web |title=Why RyuJIT? How was the name chosen? |url=https://akfd.wordpress.com/2014/11/25/what-is-ryujit/ |website=nuWave eSolutions Development Team Blog |date=November 25, 2014 |access-date=June 21, 2016}}}} {{Not a typo|.NET Core}} also contains CoreRT, the {{Not a typo|.NET Native}} runtime optimized to be integrated into AOT compiled native binaries.{{Cite web|last=Ramel|first=David|date=August 31, 2020|title=Microsoft Survey: Developers Held Back by Lack of 'Native AOT' in .NET Core -|url=https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2020/08/31/aot-survey.aspx|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022100947/https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2020/08/31/aot-survey.aspx|archive-date=October 22, 2020|access-date=February 1, 2021|website=Visual Studio Magazine|language=en-US}}

As an implementation of CLI's Standard Libraries,{{cite web |last1=Landwerth |first1=Immo |title=Introducing .NET Core |url=https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2014/12/04/introducing-net-core/ |website=.NET Framework Blog |publisher=Microsoft |access-date=February 27, 2015 |date=December 4, 2014}} CoreFX shares a subset of {{Not a typo|.NET Framework}} APIs, however, it also comes with its own APIs that are not part of the {{Not a typo|.NET Framework}}. A variant of the .NET library is used for UWP.{{cite web |title=Intro to .NET Native and CoreRT |website=GitHub |url=https://github.com/dotnet/corert/blob/master/Documentation/intro-to-corert.md |date=April 23, 2016}}

The .NET command-line interface offers an execution entry point for operating systems and provides developer services like compilation and package management.{{cite web |title=Intro to CLI |website=GitHub |url=https://github.com/dotnet/cli/blob/rel/1.0.0/Documentation/intro-to-cli.md |date=April 23, 2016}}

File:UML dotnet streams.svg

.NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI, introduced with .NET 6) is a cross-platform framework for creating native mobile and desktop apps with C# and Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML),{{Cite web |title=What is .NET MAUI? - .NET MAUI |url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/what-is-maui |access-date=2022-11-08 |website=learn.microsoft.com |language=en-us}} which also supports Android and iOS.

File:Dotnet-bot.svg

The official community mascot of .NET is the .NET Bot (stylized as "dotnet bot" or "dotnet-bot"). The dotnet bot served as the placeholder developer for the initial check-in of the .NET source code when it was open-sourced.{{cite AV media |people=Wang, Abel |date=September 9, 2020 |title=What is the dotnet bot? |medium=Podcast |language=English |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkHkQHurCIs |access-date=March 9, 2021 |time=4 seconds in |publisher=Microsoft}} It has since been used as the official mascot.

{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

{{Reflist|20em}}

• {{cite book|author1-first=Hammad|author1-last=Arif|author2-first=Habib|author2-last=Qureshi|year=2020|title=Adopting .NET 5: Understand modern architectures, migration best practices, and the new features in .NET 5|publisher=Packt Publishing|isbn=978-1800560567}}
• {{cite book|author-first=Dustin|author-last=Metzgar|year=2018|title=.NET Core in Action|publisher=Manning Publications|isbn=978-1617294273}}
• {{cite book|author-first=Mark J.|author-last=Price|year=2021|title=C# 10 and .NET 6 – Modern Cross-Platform Development|publisher=Packt Publishing|isbn=978-1801077361}}
• {{cite book|author-first=Mark J.|author-last=Price|year=2020|title=C# 9 and .NET 5 – Modern Cross-Platform Development|publisher=Packt Publishing|isbn=978-1800568105}}
• {{cite book|author-first=Mark J.|author-last=Price|year=2019|title=C# 8.0 and .NET Core 3.0 – Modern Cross-Platform Development|publisher=Packt Publishing|isbn=978-1788478120}}
• {{cite book|author-first=Mark J.|author-last=Price|year=2017|title=C# 7.1 and .NET Core 2.0 – Modern Cross-Platform Development|publisher=Packt Publishing|isbn=978-1788398077}}
• {{cite book|author-first=Mark J.|author-last=Price|year=2017|title=C# 7 and .NET Core: Modern Cross-Platform Development|publisher=Packt Publishing|isbn=978-1787129559}}
• {{cite book|author-first=Mark J.|author-last=Price|year=2016|title=C# 6 and .NET Core 1.0: Modern Cross-Platform Development|publisher=Packt Publishing|isbn=978-1785285691}}
• {{cite book|author-first=Alexey|author-last=Zimarev|year=2019|title=Hands-On Domain-Driven Design with .NET Core|publisher=Packt Publishing|isbn=978-1788834094}}

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{{Wikiversity|Introduction to .NET}}

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