> It's kind of ironic that even today, the default .NET version baked into fresh Windows installs is 4.6 (or nearby), not the shiny new .NET 8/9. Meanwhile, Ora

> It's kind of ironic that even today, the default .NET version baked into fresh Windows installs is 4.6 (or nearby), not the shiny new .NET 8/9. Meanwhile, Oracle still offers JDK 8 — albeit behind a paid support wall — much like Microsoft continues to patch .NET 4.x via Windows Update. You answered your own question. .NET can never ship with Windows, because it then _needs_ to be supported forever. Imagine Microsoft needing to not only support .NET Framework 4.x, but also support .NET Core 3, .NET 6, .NET 8 etc.