There is More!
December 4, 2000
Final Thoughts
As you can tell, .NET is going to bring about a phenomenal change
to web development in the future. We only discussed a little bit
about ASP.NET and from that little bit it is clear that Microsoft has
gone to great lengths to make developing web applications easier.
Even simple pages will benefit from the .NET runtime and framework.
Before we wrap up, let's talk about a few more things you should know
about .NET for now.
First, what sort of system do you need to run .NET applications?
Is it cross-platform compatible? The long and short of the answer is
"not exactly." Microsoft has stated that .NET is a cross-platform
solution, but that is not really true yet. It is cross-platform as
far as Microsoft is concerned, but as far as Unix and the rest of the
web world is concerned, it does nothing. In other words, when .NET is
released officially (in about six months), it will work on Microsoft
products - Win2k, WinNT4 and Win9x, but not anything else. It seems
rather stupid not to support other platforms for such a great
concept, but that is the Microsoft way. Fortunately, there are rumors
that a Linux/Unix compatible version is in the works.
Second, how do I play with .NET now if it will not be out for six
months? If you have Windows 2000, Windows NT4, Windows 98 or Windows
ME then you are in luck, if not, I am afraid you will have to wait
for a few months to play with ASP.NET. To download the latest
Software Development Kit (SDK), visit
MSDN.
Lastly, where else can I get information about Microsoft .NET?
While .NET is not out yet, there are a lot of places where you can
read up on .NET. Check out the following links:
Microsoft .NET Developer's
Center
A Preview of ASP+ (This is a good book from which I learned a lot
of what I shared today - buy it!)
ASP Today
ASPNG.com
ASPFree.com
In conclusion, I hope that this article helped give you a glimpse
of what we ASP developers have to look forward to. Download the SDK
and have some fun. It is always good to be ahead of the game!
A Server With Memory
The .NET Revolution
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