Brennan’s Blog

It is official, .NET 3.0 is out! The discussion over at Digg.com is pretty active. As I read through the comments I see some confusion over what this all means.

Just this past November Microsoft released .NET 2.0 which introduced new language features and great new features for ASP.NET 2.0 like Master Pages and new databound controls. And just a year later Microsoft is releasing what they are now calling .NET 3.0, formerly WinFX. Some developers feel they are just getting a handle on .NET 2.0. Fortunately these developers will not need to abandon what they have learned because the changes will not undercut their efforts to master .NET 2.0. The new functionality does not replace what is already there, but adds to it.

If you ask those in the know, they will tell you it really is .NET 2.0 with a few powerful extensions. The reason is that .NET 2.0 is still required for .NET 3.0 while you can run .NET 2.0 without .NET 1.1. No new language features have been added for C# or VB.NET, but .NET 3.0 does add significant features. It just may not add up to 3.0. It may be better to think of it as .NET 2.1 or 2.5. These new features are Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), and Windows CardSpace.

To develop .NET 3.0 applications you will still use Visual Studio 2005. And to work with Workflow Foundation you will need to install the extension which adds all of the new project types and visual support. This piece is the one I am finding most exciting. To learn more about it, you can watch a series of videos at dnrTV.com.

I just installed the .NET 3.0 runtime and the Workflow extensions and it just took about 10 minutes and did not require a reboot. To get the new release, visit netfx3.com.