Debunking popular myths around .Net

.NET is a software framework released by the Microsoft Corporation in 2002. It’s an open-source platform for developing multiple applications: web and mobile, desktop, IoT, and games. The framework is compatible with different programming languages and libraries as well as editors. With such a distributed scope of use, there are numerous misconceptions regarding .NET, therefore, in the article, we collected and try to debunk the most popular and common myths around the .NET framework.

1. #1 .NET applications can only run on Windows

This one was true when .NET was released since its purpose was to help build solutions for Windows and its programs. However now the web applications built utilizing .NET can be placed at any Linux-based host too. Moreover, .NET MAUI allows adding the .NET-based apps to macOS. To run an app on an Android or iOS-based device, Xamarin would also be a good choice to go for.

As to the most recent versions, .NET 6 not only runs successfully on the operating systems mentioned above but also supports x86 and x64, Arm32, and Arm64.

And there will be no issue with running a .NET app on AWS Arm instances as it is possible not to cover all the requirements for Linux.

1. #2 .NET is for enterprise solutions only

.NET is great for developing enterprise solutions for financial and banking institutions, insurance companies, etc. It is a reliable and secure framework when it comes to handling large volumes of data and high loads.

In addition, .NET is extremely flexible when used for development. Why? Because of C# and how it allows the creation of all kinds of applications for multiple types of devices, operating systems, or servers.

1. #3 .NET isn’t an opensource

This one was true for around 12 years. Yet, the policy of Microsoft changed, and they opened the code to the server part of the platform. And that period became an absolute success for the company as well as for .NET in particular. The number of features of the frameworks started increasing and multiple partnerships were announced, including Linux and Xamarin.

1. #4 .NET license is expensive

Starting from 2022, .NET became fully free regardless of the purpose you use it for. Actually, the license for .NET has always been free, yet, if you’d utilize additional tools, e.g. Visual Studio (VS), you would pay. However, there’s Visual Studio Code, a free solution for building applications for different operating systems, be that web or cloud. Besides that, VS Code owns a great set of extensions for C#. Basically, you can build any .NET application with VS.

1. #5 .NET isn’t suitable for game development

Wrong! .NET has been widely used in game development as it’s cross-platform and consists of many tools, libraries, and programming languages. It is great for both 2D and 3D games and operates with game engines like Unity, Monogame, Stride, NeoAxis, and many others. Some of these are in pure .NET, others are a mixture of .NET and C#.

1. #6 .NET is too slow

Actually. NET is one of the fastest frameworks for web development. With .NET 6 in the picture, software engineers observe high performance with low memory use. Which is a great solution for businesses as it saves development time, hence, if financially efficient.

Summary

Despite many myths surrounding .NET, it keeps being one of the most popular frameworks with great performance levels and a ton of benefits for the organizations and software developers who utilize it. .NET along with C# are evolving and improving all the time to prove their versatility and high efficiency to create products and services for multiple sectors and purposes.

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