.NET release schedule

From now on, as well as in the future, .NET will be the only name carried forward by Microsoft when talking about .NET Core or .NET 5, so we will now use the dominant name from here on, .NET, when talking in general terms. We will highlight .NET 5 when the topic is specifically related to .NET 5.

We learned earlier that .NET has a consistent schedule and is independent of Windows release cycles and Windows updates. Let's have a quick look at what the schedule looks like:

Figure 1.11 – .NET release schedule

With this, we realize that .NET has a very predictable schedule that a company can rely on. We see that .NET 5 gets released in November 2020, and .NET 6 in November 2021 – meaning that every year there is a new major release in November, and that every even-numbered release is a long-term support (LTS) where it is supported for 3 years.

What does industry highlight in relation to .NET?

With all the features and forward-looking technologies provided by .NET with full cloud-based modern application support, we have some really promising statistics from the industry side. Let's see what some of the top stats say:

•  On GitHub, .NET Core is one of the highest velocity open source projects.

•  On GitHub, C# is the fifth most popular language.

•  In 2019/2020, .NET Core was the most loved framework on StackOverFlow.

•  In terms of professional careers, .NET is the second most popular technology skill required by the hot jobs on LinkedIn.

We learned that it is with .NET 5 that the .NET Framework and .NET Core worlds are merged into a single .NET offering. We also realized that each technology platform's distinguishing factors are made clearly visible, meaning that it helps technology leaders make well-informed decisions. We also see now that the single version of .NET has consistent release dates provided in advance that enterprises can depend on. Next, we will visit the .NET Support policies for both .NET Framework and .NET Core.