What We Need To Learn .NET?

To  get  started  with  .NET  Programming,  the  programmer  must  have previous knowledge in the following languages.

• C (For General Programming Experience)
• C++ (or) OOP Theory (For Object Oriented Programming Experience)
• SQL SERVER (For writing the database queries in ADO.NET)
• HTML (For web page designing in ASP.NET)

Version's :

      While introducing .NET Framework, Microsoft Corporation  has  given a promise to the  software  industry  to  deliver  a  standard  Framework  which  overcomes  the  old  problems  and along with following:

• Multiple platforms: The system runs on a broad range of computers, from servers and desktop machines, smart phones and cell phones.
• Industry  standards:  The  system  uses  industry  standard  communication  protocols, such as XML, HTTP, SOAP, and WSDL.
• Security:  The system can provide a much safer execution environment, which can‘t be hacked or robbed by others.

Version's of .NET Framework

Advantages of .NET

• 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.
• Offers more secured environment never before.
• Offers flexible data access with ADO.NET.
• Supports  to  develop  windows  services  and  web  services,  which  are  necessary  to handle in the live projects in the modern programming world.
• Supports  to  develop  applications  for  small  devices  like  PDA‘s,  smart  phones,  mobile phones etc.
• Offers  ―> platform independency,  because it  supports  to  run  the  .NET  applications  on other platforms like UNIX, LINUX and Solaris etc., with .NET Mono framework.
• Offers easier and faster UI design (with drag and drop technique), when compared with the languages like Java. 
• Offers the best debugging tools in the industry, which makes the programmer to easily fix the bugs.
• Offers  improved  object  oriented  programming  features  like  properties,  sealed classes,  inner  classes,  delegates,  enumerations,  collections,  interfaces,  generics, extension methods, anonymous types, anonymous methods, lambda expressions, named parameters etc.
• Offers  to  share  and  reuse  the  code  among  multiple  applications  very  easily,  with  the concept of ―> Assemblies.
• Offers  to  write  queries  in  the  programming  code  itself,  using  the  newly  added  querying technology called ―> LINQ (Language Integrated Query), which is introduced in .NET 3.5.
• Offers  faster  and  easier  Deployment  features,  to  generate  ―Installer  packages for installing the .NET application on the client systems.
• Offers to create multiple threads and also to manage them for creating Multi-Threaded Applications.
• Offers  XML  support  and  interaction,  which  is  mostly  required  in  the  modern  application development environment.
• Supports  to  create  user  defined  graphics  like  lines,  rectangles,  bars,  circles  etc.,  very easily using “GDI+” (Graphics Device Interface) concepts.
• Offers  a  new  and  attractive  feature  called  WPF  (Windows  Presentation Foundation),  which  is  built  on  Vector  based  graphics  and  which  enables  the programmer to create 2-D and 3-D graphics, animations, games, audio and view players etc. This is newly added feature in .NET 3.0.
• Offers  another  prestigious  feature  called  WCF  (Windows  Communication  Foundation), which  integrates  the several  distributed  technologies  like  .NET  Remoting,  SOAP  enabled web  services,  named  pipes  and  message  queues  etc.,  which  helps  the  programmer  to develop  service  and  network  oriented  applications  using  .NET.  This  is  newly  added feature in .NET 3.0.
• 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.orkut.com

Let's Check Why .NET Always Fight With JAVA ( .NET VS JAVA)

 Difference Between .NET and JAVA

.NET Framework Types:

The .NET Framework is available in 3 different types:

• .NET  Framework:  This  is  the  general  version,  required  to  run  .NET applications  on Windows operating system.
• .NET Mono Framework:  This  is  required  to  run  .NET  applications  on  other  operating systems like UNIX, LINUX and Solaris etc.
• .NET Compact Framework:  This is required to run .NET applications on other devices like PDA (Personal Digital Assistants), Mobile phones and Smart phones.