- Jun 10, 2006
- Development
- microsoft
On Friday, Microsoft announced the .NET Framework 3.0. It is a renaming of WinFX and will be shipped with Windows Vista (whenever it actually ships.)
While the renaming makes sense on some levels, it adds confusion on
others. The .NET Framework 3.0 version will be comprised of the
existing 2.0 components (ASP.NET, ADO.NET, etc) completely unchanged
but adding in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPC), Windows
Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation, and
InfoCard (now called Windows CardSpace).
It appears that the 3.0 framework will require the 2.0 framework to be installed
(and will install it as part of the installation if need be.) This
will be the first framework release that will require a previous
version or other bits to be installed. I fear the size of this
installation!
The confusion for me starts when I think about Orcas (the next version
of .NET). According to Jason Zander, it will likely be called 3.5.
Will it need 3 frameworks installed (2.0, 3.0, and 3.5)? What will the
new versions of ASP.NET and the other components be called? (Will we
care?)
On a sad note, I recently looked at the new developer certification
info with a friend from work. The .NET Framework 2.0 exams just got out
of beta and already we are talking about the 3.0 Framework. Should we
all hold out for the 3.0 exams? :)