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title: What Is the .NET Framework
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![.NET Logo](//discourse-user-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/original/2X/7/7068b1111104197f2692a98aec00f388e09e9ab5.png)

<a href='https://www.microsoft.com/net' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>.NET Framework</a> or simply, .NET is a multi-purpose multi-language runtime framework; created and owned by <a href='https://www.microsoft.com' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Microsoft</a>.

It has a large class library, supports language interpolability; and runs primarily on Windows.

Microsoft started development of .NET Framework in the late 1990s, and by the 2000s a beta version was released. Other than Windows GUI development and Windows Phone apps development; the .NET framework is used in web development.

It works seamlessly with <a href='https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Microsoft Azure</a> cloud hosting platform and <a href='https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/sql-server/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>SQL Server</a> database. It allows programming the server side in multiple different languages; predominantly in <a href='https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/67ef8sbd.aspx' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>C#</a>.

With <a href='https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>MSDN</a> as a content-rich community, there are lots of potentials and benefits to using .NET for web development.
