.NET different from .NET Framework
.NET (pronounced as "dot net"; formerly named .NET Core) is a free and open-source, managed computer software framework for Windows, Linux, and macOS operating systems. It is a cross-platform successor to .NET Framework. The project is mainly developed by Microsoft employees by way of the .NET Foundation, and released under an MIT License.History
On November 12, 2014, Microsoft announced .NET Core, in an effort to include cross-platform support for .NET, including Linux and macOS, source for the .NET Core CoreCLR implementation, source for the "entire [...] library stack" for .NET Core, and 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", 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..NET Core 1.0 was released on June 27, 2016, along with Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Update 3, which enables .NET Core development. .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..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. .NET Core 2.1 was released on May 30, 2018. NET Core 2.2 was released on December 4, 2018..NET Core 3 was released on September 23, 2019. .NET Core 3 adds support for Windows desktop application development and significant performance improvements throughout the base library.
In November 2020, Microsoft released .NET 5.0. The "Core" branding was removed and version 4.0 was skipped to avoid conflation with .NET Framework, which remains the Windows-specific product. It addresses the patent concerns related to the .NET Framework.In November 2021, Microsoft released .NET 6.0, and in November 2022 released .NET 7.0, but only the former is a long-term support (LTS) release.