A really handwavy description would be that it's kinda like a "runtime". It's very roughly analogous to the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). .NET binaries are v

A really handwavy description would be that it's kinda like a "runtime". It's very roughly analogous to the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). .NET binaries are very roughly like JAR files. (I realize the analogy is rough, but I think it would connect with folks who've never worked with a Microsoft stack)