> .Net did actually turn out to be the big deal it set out to be At the time (2001) .Net was the brand for a vaguely defined all-encompassing Microsoft initiat

> .Net did actually turn out to be the big deal it set out to be At the time (2001) .Net was the brand for a vaguely defined all-encompassing Microsoft initiative - something about connecting everything. The .net framework was just one piece of this, there were also SOAP services, a global identity system and various other stuff. See for example this old article: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2596383/update--microsoft-stakes-future-on--net-strategy.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/2596383/update--micros... : > For end users, .Net provides a sparse, browser-like user interface without any menu bars. A key concept in the new user interface is the "universal canvas," which Microsoft said eliminates the borders between different applications. For example, spreadsheet and word processing features will be available inside e-mail documents. .Net also will support handwriting and speech recognition, the company said. It is clear nobody (even in Microsoft) had any idea what .net was supposed to mean! This branding obviously failed, so .net was narrowed to just describe the development framework.