OS and .NET Framework

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Guest

Can anyone satisfactorily explain why the .NET Framework is not distributed
and installed with the Windows Operating System? I've always wondered why
developers have to go to special pains to redistribute components and files
that are created by the same company responsible for the OS. If Microsoft
sells the OS and the development tools, why make the developers lives
miserable and cost developers extra time & money & disk space & configuration
problems when distributing their own "Microsoft Solutions"!?!?#$^%#@#*
 
Shapij,

First - let me say that I agree with you 100%. It would be very convenient
if we developers did not have to install the runtimes (on either the desktop
or on devices).

And second - since you ask the question, perhaps an answer will help put
things into perspective. The issue comes down to timing. Microsoft started
to ship Windows XP in October of 2001, while the .NET Framework 1.0 did not
ship until February 2002. When the Windows XP Service Pack 1 started to ship
(in the fall of 2002), it included the .NET Framework as an option.

Microsoft really *does* want to include this with new OSes, but sometimes
they cannot wait to include a new component when an OS has to ship. To their
credit, the .NET Framework *is* included in the two most recently shipped
versions of the desktop/server OSes, and by that I mean in (a) for the
Tablet PC (which runs a superset of Windows XP Professional, known as
Windows XP - Tablet PC Edition), and also in (b) Windows Server 2003. Both
of these ship with the .NET Framework 1.0

The same can be said for Windows Mobile Devices.

The original Pocket PC and Pocket PC 2002 shipped before the .NET Compact
Framework was available. But now, it is "standard" in ROM for the Pocket PC
2003.

The Smartphone 2002 does *not* include the Compact Framework, but the
Smartphone 2003 does include the .NET Compact Framework (service pack 1).

Moving forward, the situation gets better -- but until then, you are right:
developers have to factor the runtime installation into their development
plans.

--
My Best,
Paul Yao

Microsoft eMVP
co-author, .NET Compact Framework Programming with C#
co-author, .NET Compact Framework Programming with VB.NET
http://www.paulyao.com
 
Hi,

A very simple explanation, when XP shipped .NET was not ready yet therefore
it could not be nicluded. It's included in 2003 server.

The same thing happened with PPC 2000, 2002, and again with PPC 2003 it
shipped in ROM as it was ready BEFORE.

Cheers,
 
Hi,

I agree with you , the timing was not the best but remember that
coordinate two release as big as XP and a whole new framework is not easy
task, beside that if XP was ready at the time, more than one head would had
roll if they decide to wait until .NET and lose the christmas season , it
would had been a suicide :)

Cheers,
 
Ignacio Machin ( .NET/ C# MVP ) said:
Hi,

A very simple explanation, when XP shipped .NET was not ready yet therefore
it could not be nicluded. It's included in 2003 server.

The same thing happened with PPC 2000, 2002, and again with PPC 2003 it
shipped in ROM as it was ready BEFORE.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

To add insult to injury, when installing the framework on NT 3.51 (it still
lives!), one has to install Internet Explorer -=before dotnetfx.exe can even
install=-. As if the two were somehow related!

Sometimes it's not too hard to figure out what the DOJ was making noise for.
:-)

Best Regards,

Andy
 
Your answer made me laugh. My (strictly rhetorical) question is: "Just what
do the developers get for Christmas?" The developers not only buy the OS,
but the expensive dev tools as well, so one would think we'd be high priority
customers. Sigh...
 
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