Learning Windows Server 2003

Chapter 9. .NET Framework

Windows Server 2003 is the first operating system to include the .NET Framework preinstalled. Enhancements to IIS and COM+, along with security and stability improvements, have positioned Windows Server 2003 as the optimal operating system for the deployment of .NET applications. This chapter provides a guide to managing the .NET Framework and .NET applications.

What Is .NET?

.NET is two things: a state-of-the-art software platform, and a prime example of a marketing disaster. I’ll try to focus on the former; before I proceed, though, I would like to recommend that if you have been frequenting http://www.Slashdot.org or watching a lot of TV, please wipe your mind of all prior knowledge related to .NET. Most likely you are another victim of the Microsoft marketing department, which at one point had slated every Microsoft server product, including Windows Server 2003, to include the .NET name. Many months of disorder passed before Microsoft, probably inspired by a confused techie, finally reverted to a more sensible naming convention for its product line. Today only a few artifacts outside of the .NET software platform contain .NET in their names.

I stated that .NET is an amazing software platform. The next step is to define “software platform.” A software platform is composed of the following elements.

Language

A set of constructs and grammar the developer uses to convey logic into an application.

Libraries

Modern software platforms provide a robust infrastructure ...