Advantages of .NET

1. Supports multiple languages like VC#, VB.NET, VC++.NET, VJ#.NET etc., so that the programmer can write the code in his/her interested language.
2. Offers more secured environment never before.
3. Offers flexible data access with ADO.NET
4. Supports to develop windows services and web services, which are necessary to handle in the live projects in the modern programming world.
5. Supports to develop applications for small devices like PDA’s, smart phones, mobile phones etc.
6. Offers “platform independency”, because it supports to run the .NET applications on other platforms like UNIX, LINUX and Solaris etc., with .NET Mono framework.
5. Offers easier and faster UI design (with drag and drop technique), when compared with the languages like Java.
8. Offers the best debugging tools in the industry, which makes the programmer to easily fix the bugs.
9. Offers improved object oriented programming features like properties, sealed classes, inner classes, delegates, enumerations, collections, interfaces, generics etc.
10. Offers to share and reuse the code among multiple applications very easily, with the concept of “Assemblies”.
11. Offers to write queries in the programming code itself, using the newly added feature called “LINQ” (Language Integrated Query). This is newly added feature in .NET 3.5.
12. Offers faster and easier Deployment features, to generate “Installer packages” for installing the .NET application on the client systems.
13. Offers to create multiple threads and also to manage them for creating Multi-Threaded Applications.
14. Offers XML support and interaction, which is mostly required in the modern application development environment.
15. Supports to create user defined graphics like lines, rectangles, bars, circles etc., very easily using “GDI+” (Graphics Device Interface) concepts.
16. Offers a new and attractive feature called WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), which is built on DirectX and which enables the programmer to create 2-D and 3-D graphics, animation, games, audio and view players etc. This is newly added feature in .NET 3.5.
17. Offers another prestigious feature called WCF (Windows Communication Foundation), which integrates the network programming related libraries of .NET like .NET Remoting, SOAP enabled web services and message queues etc., which helps the programmer to develop service and network oriented applications using .NET. This is newly added feature in .NET 3.5.
18. Support for the most recent web technology called AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) along with ASP.NET. As a result of AJAX, the developer can produce newer generation user experiences on the web. Ex: www.facebook.com.

.NET (vs) Java

Microsoft’s .NET and SUN’s Java are strong competitors.
Similarities
.NET and Java

1. Both of these support to develop console applications, windows applications, web sites, web services etc.
2. Both use their own intermediate language. Java calls it as “byte code” and .NET calls it as “MSIL”.
3. Both are Object oriented programming languages.
4. Both support Remoting.
5. Both supports multi-threading.
6. Both are platform independent.
7. Both support web related languages like Java Script, XML, CSS etc.
8. Both support the recent web development technology like AJAX.
9. Both support “Garbage collection”, which automatically clears the un-used memory.
10. Both support to develop the applications for small devices like PDA’s, mobile phones, smart phones etc.
11. Both offer better security features in their own style.


Differences .NET Java
1.
.NET- It is cost effective. Costs more than $700 (nearly Rs. 35,000)
Java- It is open source product, which can be freely downloaded on the Internet.

2.
.NET- Supports Language Independency (supports multiple languages)
Java- Doesn’t offers multiple languages

3.
.NET- Offers IDE as Visual Studio by Microsoft.
Java- Doesn’t offer any IDE. But other IDE’s by other vendors such as Eclipse etc.

4.
.NET- Offers easiest and fastest application development, which indirectly reduces the cost of the software.
Java- Requires much time for the application development, which indirectly increases the cost of the software.

5.
.NET- Designing the UI is very much easy with “Drag and Drop” technique.
Java- UI Design requires much programmer’s effort and stress.

6.
.NET- AJAX is implementation is much easy.
Java- AJAX is implementation is much time taking process, requires much code to write.

.NET FRAMEWORK in-depth

.NET Framework Types:
The .NET Framework is available in 4 different types:

.NET Framework:

This is the general version, required to run .NET applications on Windows operating system.

.NET Compact Framework:

This is required to run .NET applications on other devices like PDA (Personal Digital Assistants), Mobile phones and Smart phones.

.NET Micro Framework:

This is very much smaller in memory size. This is designed to run .NET applications on the like Mobile phones and Smart phones having small memory capacity.

.NET Mono Framework:

This is required to run .NET applications on other operating systems like UNIX, LINUX and Solaris etc.