The Microsoft .NET Framework, more commonly known as simply the .NET Framework, is a software development platform created by Microsoft. The .NET Framework is now in version 2.0, which was released in October of 2005 and is the successor to two major previous versions: 1.0 and 1.1. .NET is a Microsoft technology that allows cross-language development and provides a large standard library. Other competing approaches are cross-platform languages, i.e. Perl, using a cross-platform runtime like the Java Virtual Machine, or compile standard ANSI C to each platform.
Microsoft. NET Framework is one of the latest and new technologies introduced by Microsoft Corporation. Nowadays we use to connect to the internet using a computer and a remote computer responses via a web page and a collection of web pages are called as Web Sites. The Concept in .NET is that these websites can integrate with other sites and services using Standard Protocols like HTTP.
Microsoft’s .NET platform has matured into a robust and versatile development environment for both Windows-based and Web-based application development. With its emphasis on XML technology and Web services, .NET allows businesses of all sizes to take advantage of the Internet for distributed computational power.
Microsoft .NET Platform comprises of four core components such as
.NET Building Block Services such as file storage, calendar called Passport. NET
.NET Device Software which will run on latest Internet Devices like Mobile Phones.
.NET user experience such as integrating this technology to user created documents (integrates with XML). For example if you code XML via a .NET Language like C#, it will automatically create XML document
.NET infrastructure which includes
.NET Framework (Common Language Runtime & .NET Framework Class Libraries)
Microsoft Visual Studio.NET such as Visual Basic.NET ,Visual C++.NET etc
.NET Enterprise Servers and Microsoft Windows. NET
All the .NET languages like Asp.net, C-sharp, VisualBasic.NET, etc have the .NET Framework class libraries built into them