.NET Framework vs .NET Core vs .NET 5+ — Modern .NET — Hosting, Configuration, DI & Deployment

1. .NET Framework vs .NET Core vs .NET 5+

Basic★ Must knowLesson 1 of 9

.NET Framework (2002–): Windows-only, installed machine-wide, tied to Windows updates. Last version 4.8.1. Still supported for existing apps, but receives no new features. ASP.NET Web Forms, WCF server and Windows Workflow live here.
.NET Core (2016–2019): open source, cross-platform, modular, side-by-side versions, high performance.
.NET 5+ (2020–): the unification — one .NET for cloud, web, desktop, mobile (MAUI), games and IoT. Version 4 was skipped to avoid confusion with .NET Framework 4.x.
.NET Standard (2.0, 2.1): a specification of APIs shared across implementations; target netstandard2.0 only when a library must also run on .NET Framework. New libraries target net8.0/net10.0.

xml

<!-- SDK-style project -->
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net10.0</TargetFramework>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Dapper" Version="2.1.66" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>