4 ms·

Even if it appears confusing to people (there is .NET Core, Standard and Framework) it can be summarized fairly easily. The original .NET variations up until 4

Even if it appears confusing to people (there is .NET Core, Standard and Framework) it can be summarized fairly easily. The original .NET variations up until 4.8 are called Framework, built into Windows with quite a bit of Windows-dependencies and probably conversely also a bunch of Windows components that depend on it. The modern core lineage (Core 1 to 3.1 and all "unified" .NET releases after 5) are named so since the "core" parts are platform independent running equally well on f.ex. Linux as Windows for webservers and similar. Desktop API's are moved to packages/SDK's to avoid creeping platform dependant code into the core. Standard is an even more limited subset meant for developers who want to make libraries for both core and framework. Now about Mono Framework, Mono was initially built to emulate old .NET Framework (hence Mono Framework) and due to it being intertwined with Windows it makes sense (and feels surprisingly progressive by MS) for Wine to steward these parts. More modern unified/core .NET versions are meant to be distributed with applications and not bloat up Windows proper(and thus no need for Wine to support in addition to regular Windows API's). Why Mono was taken into MS initially was to bring in their Xamarin branded crossplatform support for iOS and Android applications.

kqr 2y ago
And for even further historical background, I wrote .NET on Non-Windows Platforms: A Brief History.[1] [1]: https://entropicthoughts.com/dotnet-on-non-windows-platforms-brief-historic-summary https://entropicthoughts.com/dotnet-on-non-windows-platforms...
pjmlp 2y ago
From Microsoft there are also.NET Native, .NET Nano Framework, .NET Micro Framework. Additionally outside Microsoft, Meadows and Unity .NET (which is a kind of hybrid between Mono and their own IL2CPP/Burst). Many Xamarin folks are not that happy how the whole merge turned out.
- mrcsharp 2y ago
  There is also nanoFramework which is an open-source continuation of .Net Micro Framework to bring .NET to MCUs.
  - mdaniel 2y ago
    > nanoFramework which is [...] .Net Micro Framework (nod)
- whizzter 2y ago
  Did any of those apart from the Unity runtime ever gain any significant traction? (Iirc they've had some idea of porting to mainline .NET but weaning a sloppy codebase off Boehm is probably easier said than done). Any particular reasons for Xamarin people not being happy? (I know Miguel left but can't remember why). I was still using some Java back then so I was particularly bummed from the outside about RoboVM being abandoned.
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    Enough to keep some companies in business, https://nanoframework.net/ https://nanoframework.net/ https://www.wildernesslabs.co/ https://www.wildernesslabs.co/ Yes, the Xamarin.Forms to MAUI rewrite, killing off MonoDevelop/Xamarin Studio, and with exception of a few key technologies like the linker, llvm AOT (used by Blazor), and the mobile targets, everything else is gone. There are few public faces from Xamarin still at Microsoft.
    - whizzter 2y ago
      Maui seems to have been a certain kind of clusterf. As for MonoDevelop/XamStudio/VS4Mac that mostly seems to have become a casualty of the general VSCode bandwagon that was probably hard to foresee at the time they bought it.
- novaleaf 2y ago
  you forgot the .NET Compact Framework, =D It let XNA games run on the xbox360: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Compact_Framework https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Compact_Framework
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    Right, good point.

kqr 2y ago

And for even further historical background, I wrote .NET on Non-Windows Platforms: A Brief History.[1] [1]: https://entropicthoughts.com/dotnet-on-non-windows-platforms-brief-historic-summary https://entropicthoughts.com/dotnet-on-non-windows-platforms...

pjmlp 2y ago

From Microsoft there are also.NET Native, .NET Nano Framework, .NET Micro Framework. Additionally outside Microsoft, Meadows and Unity .NET (which is a kind of hybrid between Mono and their own IL2CPP/Burst). Many Xamarin folks are not that happy how the whole merge turned out.

mrcsharp 2y ago
There is also nanoFramework which is an open-source continuation of .Net Micro Framework to bring .NET to MCUs.
- mdaniel 2y ago
  > nanoFramework which is [...] .Net Micro Framework (nod)
whizzter 2y ago
Did any of those apart from the Unity runtime ever gain any significant traction? (Iirc they've had some idea of porting to mainline .NET but weaning a sloppy codebase off Boehm is probably easier said than done). Any particular reasons for Xamarin people not being happy? (I know Miguel left but can't remember why). I was still using some Java back then so I was particularly bummed from the outside about RoboVM being abandoned.
- pjmlp 2y ago
  Enough to keep some companies in business, https://nanoframework.net/ https://nanoframework.net/ https://www.wildernesslabs.co/ https://www.wildernesslabs.co/ Yes, the Xamarin.Forms to MAUI rewrite, killing off MonoDevelop/Xamarin Studio, and with exception of a few key technologies like the linker, llvm AOT (used by Blazor), and the mobile targets, everything else is gone. There are few public faces from Xamarin still at Microsoft.
  - whizzter 2y ago
    Maui seems to have been a certain kind of clusterf. As for MonoDevelop/XamStudio/VS4Mac that mostly seems to have become a casualty of the general VSCode bandwagon that was probably hard to foresee at the time they bought it.
novaleaf 2y ago
you forgot the .NET Compact Framework, =D It let XNA games run on the xbox360: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Compact_Framework https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Compact_Framework
- pjmlp 2y ago
  Right, good point.