Framework version under Windows Server 2003

[Tim Schumann]

Let's say you're the app development group within a
company and you've been coding to .NET 1.0 (SP2) for some
time now. You're ready and able to move to .NET 1.1 as
soon as you can convince your network group to deploy it
to the company's 1,000 workstations. But you're patient.

Now you find they've started rolling out terminal servers
under Windows Server 2003, which comes configured with
only v1.1 of .NET. Should this be a cause for concern?
Most of your users are using 1.0, but many of your remote
users will now be binding automatically (assuming I
understand how this works) to v1.1 in an untested
configuration.

How much of a concern should this be? Is the best
practice to (1) ignore the issue because 1.1 supports 1.0
apps seamlessly; (2) push them to deploy 1.1 to all
workstations right away while you recompile and test your
apps under 1.1; or (3) install 1.0 alongside 1.1 on the
WS2003 terminal servers?

(Re #3, I notice WS2003 isn't listed as a supported
platform for 1.0 at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/previous/v1.0/sysreq
s/default.aspx. Any problems with installing it there, or
installing it *after* 1.1 has been installed?)

 

[Dmitriy Lapshin [C# / .NET MVP]]

Hello Tim,

(1) is not applicable as .NET 1.1 is NOT fully backwards-compatible with
..NET 1.0. Microsoft has even published a list of compatibility breaking
changes.

(3) seems to be the cheapest and least painful option unless the client is
reluctant to install additional software (many clients actually are). I am
pretty sure .NET 1.0 SP2 should run on Windows 2003 pretty well despite this
OS is not listed in the "Supportes OS" section. Please also bear in mind
that the version of the Framework installed last will take over ASP .NET
processing. This can be changed later with help of a command-line utility
called aspnet_regiis.exe or something like that.

(2) is good if you can afford additional testing and bugfixing to ensure
compatibility with version 1.1