What is .NET?

The .NET platform has come a long way over the past 20 years since it was first introduced.
.NET is an open-source developer platform, created by Microsoft, for building many different types of applications, such as web, mobile, and desktop. It consists of different tools, programming languages, and libraries. With .NET, you can use multiple languages, editors, and libraries to build for web, mobile, desktop, games, IoT, and more.

You can write .NET apps in C#, F#, or Visual Basic.

• C# is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language.
• F# is a programming language that makes it easy to write succinct, robust, and performant code.
• Visual Basic is an approachable language with a simple syntax for building type-safe, object-oriented apps.

Whether you’re working in C#, F#, or Visual Basic, your code will run natively on any compatible operating system. You can build many types of apps with .NET. Some are cross-platform, and some target a specific set of operating systems and devices.

You can build many types of apps with .NET. To help you build apps faster, app models are built on top of the base libraries.