This technical article at arstechnica.com provides a detailed introduction to the purpose, architecture, functionality, and terminology associated with .NET, and also compares Microsoft's .NET with Sun's J2EE. From the article's introduction . . .

“In a remarkable feat of journalistic sleight-of-hand, thousands of column inches in many 'reputable' on-line publications have talked at length about .NET whilst remaining largely ignorant of its nature, purpose, and implementation. Ask what .NET is, and you'll receive a wide range of answers, few of them accurate, all of them conflicting. Confusion amongst the press is rampant.”

“The more common claims made of .NET are that it's a Java rip-off, or that it's subscription software. The truth is somewhat different. Before talking about these claims, first the important question needs to be answered: What is .NET?”

“.NET is a 'software platform'. It's a language-neutral environment for writing programs that can easily and securely interoperate. Rather than targetting a particular hardware/OS combination, programs will instead target '.NET', and will run wherever .NET is implemented.”

“.NET is also the collective name given to various bits of software built upon the .NET platform. These will be both products (Visual Studio.NET and Windows.NET Server, for instance) and services (like Passport, HailStorm, and so on). The components that make up .NET-the-platform are collectively called the .NET Framework.”

“This article will concentrate on the .NET Framework; a follow-up will tackle .NET-the-software. Also within this article will be discussion of the standardization process happening in parallel, and a discussion of the differences between .NET and its major rival, J2EE . . .”

Read full story

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.