those pesky .net frameworks and updates!

[ceez]

hello fellow msfn-ers!

I have a qeustion regarding the .net framework 1,2 & 3 and their corresponding sp's.

Are they really needed lets say in an office environment that just runs office applications and CAD drafting software? Everytime we have a pc we download updates and of course those .net's come up, we just d/l and install them, but waiting for those large downloads to finish are a pain. I know we can use ghost to image our drives but we're in the process of updating those, so in the meanwhile is manual updates!

Or can we just get .net3 with its sp and forget about 1 & 2?

thanks everyone,

ceez

[NotesPack]

hello fellow msfn-ers!

I have a qeustion regarding the .net framework 1,2 & 3 and their corresponding sp's.

Are they really needed lets say in an office environment that just runs office applications and CAD drafting software? Everytime we have a pc we download updates and of course those .net's come up, we just d/l and install them, but waiting for those large downloads to finish are a pain. I know we can use ghost to image our drives but we're in the process of updating those, so in the meanwhile is manual updates!

Or can we just get .net3 with its sp and forget about 1 & 2?

thanks everyone,

ceez

As a programmer I can say that .NET Framework is needed only for software, that was developed using the Microsoft .NET platform (basically, it is the software developed with Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002 and later). If your office or CAD drafting applications require this (for example, it is recommended to have the Microsoft .NET Framework with Microsoft Office 2007), then you should have it. If you do not plan to use it, then I think there is no need in the .NET Framework, until you want to run the applications that require this.

However, the .NET Framework is already bundled with the Microsoft Windows Vista, so it already became a part of the OS. This way, I think that it will soon become a kind of standard.

I use Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, and it requires the .NET Framework to be installed. Even on other systems, where there are not going any software developments, the .NET Framework, in my opinion, should be installed for future purposes. It is not so resource-hungry and the installer is not so big, so it is not a problem to keep it installed on a system (here is even an advatage: you won't have to look for the .NET Framework when you will have to install a .NET-dependant application).

[Glenn9999]

Are they really needed lets say in an office environment that just runs office applications and CAD drafting software?

It depends on whether you use .NET apps or not on whether you need them or not. You could not install them and be fine likely. But my thought on it is that if you run into a .NET app, you can be ready to run it.

can we just get .net3 with its sp and forget about 1 & 2?

To get all the versions, you want .NET 1.1 (and all the updates) and .NET 3.5 (which includes >= .NET 2.0).

[Nick_White]

I think for now it is sufficient to install just .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 (23 MB size). I haven't run into applications that require 3.0 or later, neither 1.0 or 1.1 (too old).

[ceez]

thanks for your reply guys.

so bottom line is, yes we use office 2007 so we might as well install .net BUT we can just worry about downloading ver3 plus any updates and not worry about going through the entire process, 1+update, 2+updates.

thanks for the information!

ceez

[ajua]

thats right. install .NET Framework 3.5 only.