So What"s This .NET Thing? Well, the editor of Microsoft technet has written in his editors note this month about microsofts latest project.
The definition of .NET you might hear from us at Microsoft goes something like this: .NET is Microsoft"s platform for XML web services. XML web services allow applications to communicate and share data over the Internet or an intranet, regardless of operating system or programming language.
That"s technically accurate. However, I think .NET is about more than XML.
Six years ago, people thought of a browser as a tool that rendered pages and followed links in HTML. Today it"s described in part as "a feature-rich platform for building [w]eb-based applications and developing informative content for users." You and I know browsers do HTML, but few of us think about that aspect nowadays; it"s a given, the background for the real information.
Likewise, .NET does XML. But that"s background, I think. Here"s how I"d define it (and note that this is my personal definition, not a Microsoft "official statement" of some sort): .NET is a feature-filled services platform for building web-based applications and developing rich interactive experiences for users and their systems. The small-w "web" includes both the Internet and intranets.