Is Longhorn going to be hand-in-hand with .NET? I want to learn a new language

BobTheSlob

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 16, 2002
Messages
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I really want to get on the ball and learn a language to a point where I can do something with it. I've learned a couple of languages to a point where I "understand" them, but I can't make anything cool.

And I figure, I'm a Linux fan, but I know I'd rather make programs for a platform that is going to get used. So why not C#?

So my real question is, is .NET going to be a big part of Longhorn? Cause right now if I published a program and said you need the ".NET Framework", no one would have it, or download it. So my time would be wasted. If .NET is going to be huge, then I'll start with earnest in learning C# and the .NET framework.
 
The .NET framework *should* have been part of Windows XP, but wasn't ready in time for XP's ship date.

I'll bet a year's salary that all of .NET and probably all of whatever comes out with Whidbey (the next version of .NET) will be in the OS (Longhorn) by the time it ships.

- Qualm
 
Back in the day I recall similar things being said regarding the Visual Basic runtime DLLs. It didn't stop anyone from programming (bad) application in Visual Basic and forcing everyone to download the dlls. Overtime, everyone either had the dlls or new os versions containted them.

Sure the .Net framework is a 25mb download and that sucks for users on dialup. If the end user needed to run an app, they would have to download the framework simple as that. If everyone backs away from .net because nobody has the framework, development will stagnate until longhorn ships. That's a long time to wait.

Long and short is that you should develop in and learn the framework. If you apps are good enough, people will download it. It's a one time download. Bite the bullet!
 
If you really wanna learn it, don't let the fact that people have to download things like that stop you. And the Windows tech just keeps increasing with all the new stuff. So go for it.
 
And you could download the self install, and include it on a CD with your program, so people who don't have it can just run it from there.
 
Originally posted by Qualm
The .NET framework *should* have been part of Windows XP, but wasn't ready in time for XP's ship date.

I'll bet a year's salary that all of .NET and probably all of whatever comes out with Whidbey (the next version of .NET) will be in the OS (Longhorn) by the time it ships.

- Qualm
According to the last public info I have, the ship schedules for Whidbey and Longhorn didn't match up....

...Of course, beyond that there's not much I can say.

Your right though that the new OS API will be manged. WinFX is the name I believe. And of course, a version of the framework will ship in the OS itself as it did with XP - SP1 CDs and Win2k3.
 
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