.NET Framework Do I need it and why? Simple explanations please

superscaper

Mercenary wrote: »

The reasonable course of action would seem to be that I play the waiting game, and get it installed if and when I'm prompted for it by an irate program .

That's the only reason I installed it. No point installing something until you need it.

spook

Mercenary wrote: »

I haven't been prompted yet by any program that I currently use, so will continue to hide the updates for the moment.

"Hide the updates"? That shouldn't be necessary... I haven't ever been prompted to install .NET as a critical update, so you should only be seeing it if you're going to the Windows Update site and browsing through the 'optional' updates.

If you're being prompted to 'install' it, I'd check you haven't already got a version of it installed. (It would be listed under Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs).

Cerro

wolfman wrote: »

3.0 has been out for a while:
http://www.netfx3.com/

As mentioned, .Net is probably one of, if not the best thing Microsoft has going for it. The framework itself it totally free. It's the hosting that costs (although there are Linux projects like Mono which are changing that).

Ahh but offically that is just a beta as far as I am aware, its technically not in use until Visual Studio 2008 arrives (which probably will be before 2008).

I was making it as simple as possible for him - because that is what he asked for .

Hosting is only for websites created with ASP.NET but you do also have to pay for Visual Studio, the framework itself is free. I'm still trying to convince my friend that Mono is safe to use on linux... but he is a php fanboi.

superscaper

Cerro wrote: »

Ahh but offically that is just a beta as far as I am aware, its technically not in use until Visual Studio 2008 arrives (which probably will be before 2008).

I think you're mixing up info. .net Framework 3.0 is NOT in beta. 3.5 is the current beta version. 3.0 is the official current version of the .net framework. The one to be released with VS 2008 is 3.5. But the proper release of 3.0 (ie not beta) was at the end of last year.

Cerro

yes... I should have made that clear. But i've not seen any .NET 3.0 programs on the go (but then again... I don't use vista).

superscaper

Cerro wrote: »

yes... I should have made that clear. But i've not seen any .NET 3.0 programs on the go (but then again... I don't use vista).

To be honest I suppose it may as well be beta as there's nothing to really take advantage of it yet to show up any obvious bugs. Semantics I guess.

wolfman

Cerro wrote: »

Hosting is only for websites created with ASP.NET but you do also have to pay for Visual Studio, the framework itself is free. I'm still trying to convince my friend that Mono is safe to use on linux... but he is a php fanboi.

You can get Visual Studio Express for free, which you can do virtually everything with. It does lack some things but you can easily get around them.

Mono is ok, but always one step behind. I think they're still implementing parts of .Net 2.0 which came out in 2005.

PHP is good, but not as scalable as .Net in terms of large projects. Django is worth a look, very cool.
http://www.djangoproject.com/

Cerro

Ah didn't realise there was an express version of the whole visual studio - thought it was just web developer. I've already got VS2005 though (work provided it, no way i was coughing up for it), but i'll keep that in mind for VS2008 !! Those express editions are a clever way of pushing their products, especially SQL Server 2005, means you no longer have to use MySQL for hosting. Shrewd move by MS and as long as its free, you can't really complain.

At least when MS do (finally) do something right, they do a damn fine job of it. Unless they take a backward step with 2008 versions... *fingers crossed*

I don't mind PHP, it has its merits but I prefer ASP.NET, minimal html coding and the rest can be done in VB/C# which makes it that little bit more flexible. I've never used Python but that Django does look interesting.

Mercenary

Cerro wrote: »

I was making it as simple as possible for him - because that is what he asked for .

Thank you anyway....and btw I'm a 'her'

spook wrote:

"Hide the updates"? That shouldn't be necessary... I haven't ever been prompted to install .NET as a critical update, so you should only be seeing it if you're going to the Windows Update site and browsing through the 'optional' updates.

If you're being prompted to 'install' it, I'd check you haven't already got a version of it installed. (It would be listed under Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs).

Sorry...I meant that they are there in the offered custom downloads and that I would ignore them until they become necessary.