Difference between .NET 2.0/3.0/3.5 Framework

NET framework 2.0:

It brings a lot of evolution in class of the framework and re-factor control including the support of

• Generics
• Anonymous methods
• Partial class
• Null-able type
• The new API gives a fine grain control on the behavior of the run time with regards to multithreading, memory allocation, assembly loading and more
• Full 64-bit support for both the x64 and the IA64 hardware platforms
• New professionalization features for ASP.NET, such as support for themes, skins and webparts.
• .NET Micro Framework

.NET framework 3.0:

Also called WinFX, includes a new set of managed code APIs that are an integral part of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 operating systems and provides

• Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), formerly called Indigo; a service-oriented messaging system which allows programs to inter-operate locally or remotely similar to web services.
• Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), formerly called Avalon; a new user interface subsystem and API based on XML and vector graphics, which uses 3D computer graphics hardware and Direct3D technologies.
• Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) allows for building of task automation and integrated transactions using work-flows.
• Windows CardSpace, formerly called InfoCard; a software component which securely stores a person's digital identities and provides a unified interface for choosing the identity for a particular transaction, such as logging in to a website

.NET framework 3.5:

It implement Linq evolution in language. So we have the folowing evolution in class:

• Linq for SQL, XML, Dataset, Object
• Addin system
• p2p base class
• Active directory
• ASP.NET Ajax
• Anonymous types with static type inference
• Paging support for ADO.NET
• ADO.NET synchronization API to synchronize local caches and server side datastores
• Asynchronous network I/O API
• Support for HTTP pipelining and syndication feeds.
• New System.CodeDom namespace.

In simplly,

• .Net framework 2.0 shipped with Visual Studio 2005
• .Net framework 3.0 is same framework as .Net 2.0 + Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)+ Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) + Windows Workflow Foundation (WF)
• .Net framework 3.5 is all the above (.Net 3.0) + LINQ technologies and will ship with the next VS including VB 9.0 and C#

Note:

Earlier .NET 2.0, there have been 2 versions of .NET released. They are as follows :

• .NET 1.0 – released on January 16, 2002.
• .NET 1.1 – released on April 24, 2003.
• .NET 2.0 – Released on November 7, 2005.