.NET allows different programming languages and libraries work together, create Windows-based applications and integrate them with other networked systems. The framework provides programs enabling users to interact with one another’s systems rather than the program itself.

KEY BENEFITS OF .NET:

.NET is a cutting edge web development technology. It offers a great set of development tools striving to meet needs of the most demanding customers. Among the main advantages are:

• Improved Performance Level is provided due to reduced amount of code necessary for building applications.

• .NET is Easy to Use. A set of user-friendly tools helps to sufficiently increase programmers’ productivity and, as a result, save customer’s time and costs.

• independent Multi-Language Support. .NET possesses explicit extremely convenient multi-language support. Framework provides binary compatibility between more than 20 languages (C#, C++, VB.NET, Java, Eiffel, FORTRAN, COBOL, ML, Haskell, Pascal, Oberon, Perl, Python, etc.)

• Interoperability. .NET possesses the ability to interact with programs executed outside the framework due to resources and functionality sharing.

• Wide Range Applications Can be Developed in .NET. These are console applications: Windows Form-based applications / Windows GUI applications, Web and Mobile apps, Pocket PC apps, etc.

• Simplified Deployment. With .NET one can build applications more rapidly and deploy and maintain them with efficiency. .NET ensures that all vital application components are available on the computer before the application starts working. The .NET technology also provides web application developers with automatic deployment.

• Reliability. Web application developed in .NET is highly reliable due to web server control over the pages on an ongoing basis. Any type of illegal activities or other defects are detected by the server and removed.

.NET FRAMEWORK PITFALLS:

While the .NET framework advantages usually far outweigh the disadvantages, there are a couple of criticisms worth mentioning:

• Windows-only Compatibility. Framework is tightly integrated with Microsoft's operating system and enterprise server software and, as a result, runs only on Windows, restricting vendor choice. For comparison, Java is supported by Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems, and utilizing Java can be easily ported to all operating systems.

• Time-consuming Installation. Since its implementation date in 2002 of the Microsoft .Net platform structure has become more complicated. As the framework has become larger, the installer did too. The 2009 installer’s size is as much as 50 MB, consequently downloading the application can take a considerable amount of time, which causes inconveniences and unnecessary irritation.

• Other Installation Troubles. A large number of programs are run on Microsoft’s system, and a user may lack the version required. So installing a simple program can be quite challenging. Some users would rather avoid the need to download the framework. Conflicts during Windows installations can also occur and the small fault may cause the framework installation fail. It’s also hard to make older applications run in new .Net environment.

• Power-consuming Operation. Microsoft-relied applications tend to consume far more CPU power. This causes a slow and unsatisfactory performance on the less powerful machines.

Whatever the criticism may be, .NET remains to be a great development platform for a wide range of applications, especially for web-based ones. Moreover, .NET has a powerful framework for building rich graphical user interfaces, built-in support for Web services standards and other useful features. It can also cut some expenses for you due to built-in application server in Windows, unified management and less expensive tools.