Many customers are asking us the Why question.
Why should we migrate to .NET 3.5 if we work with one of the previous versions of .NET?
In order to answer this question, it is important to know what .NET and Visual Studio versions we are using. The older these versions are, the more benefits you get out of migrating to .NET 3.5. Each version brings additional benefits that I'll try to summarize in this post.
It is also important to note that the Benefits Are Additive since each version introduced new features without deprecating older features [at least from .NET 2.0 and onwards]. This is what I like to call, the "Onion Way" of .NET: Each version wrapped the older framework with a new layer of capabilities without changing the API of the previous framework [just like in an onion].
Another bonus is also the ability to use Visual Studio 2008 that provides additional great features. To get the benefit of Visual Studio 2008, we only need to migrate to .NET 2.0 at least if we're not there yet. A cool feature in Visual Studio 2008 called "Multi Targeting" leverages the "Onion Way" of .NET and allows compiling and targetting multiple frameworks and not only .NET 3.5 but also .NET 3.0 and .NET 2.0. So, the moment we step into .NET 2.0, 3.0 or 3.5, we get the full IDE benefits of Visual Studio 2008, but that's for another post.
The rest of the post summarizes the benefits and features we get from each .NET version or service pack. This information is also available in MSDN. Let me provide an example of how it is best to read the rest of the post. If we are using .NET 2.0 today and we think of migrating to .NET 3.5, then we would need to Add Together All the Benefits from .NET 3.0, .NET 3.0 SP1, .NET 3.5 and .NET 3.5 SP1 in order to get the full picture of the benefits.
.NET 3.5 SP1 Benefits:
Updates several assemblies that were included in the .NET Framework 3.5. The updates include non-breaking changes, new API elements, and additional functionality for the technologies that were included in the .NET Framework 3.5. The following technologies are included in the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1:
For a complete list of features, see What's New in the .NET Framework Version 3.5 [ http://msdn.microsoft.com/he-il/library/bb332048(en-us).aspx ] and What's New in the .NET Framework Version 3.5 SP1 [ http://msdn.microsoft.com/he-il/library/cc713697(en-us).aspx ] .
.NET 3.5 Benefits:
Provides the first additions to the base class libraries to the .NET Framework since version 2.0. The following technologies are introduced in the .NET Framework 3.5:
- Language Integrated Query (LINQ).
- New compilers for C#, Visual Basic, and C++.
- ASP.NET AJAX.
For a complete list of features, see What's New in the .NET Framework Version 3.5.
.NET 3.0 SP1 Benefits:
Updates .NET Framework 3.0 assemblies
.NET 3.0 Benefits:
The .NET Framework 3.0 requires the .NET Framework 2.0 to be installed on the computer. If a user installs the .NET Framework 3.0 on a computer that does not have the .NET Framework 2.0 installed, the .NET Framework 2.0 is installed automatically.
The following technologies are introduced in the .NET Framework 3.0:
- Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).
- Windows Communications Foundation (WCF).
- Windows Workflow Foundation (WF).
- Windows CardSpace
For more information, see What's New in the .NET Framework Version 3.0 [ http://msdn.microsoft.com/he-il/library/bb822048(en-us).aspx ] .
.NET 2.0 Benefits:
Provides the core architectural base for all subsequent versions of the Framework. The following technologies are included in the .NET Framework 2.0:
- Common language runtime (CLR) and base class libraries.
- Support for generic types and methods.
- Compilers for C#, Visual Basic, C++, and J#.
- ADO.NET.
- ASP.NET.
- Windows Forms.
- Web services.
This is the last version of the Framework that supports side-by-side operations of the .NET Framework versions 1.0 through 2.0. For a complete list of features see What's New in the .NET Framework Version 2.0 [ http://msdn.microsoft.com/he-il/library/t357fb32(en-us).aspx ] .