Microsoft recently announced WinFX will be renamed to .NET Framework 3.0. So what is WinFX exactly? It is a collection of rich frameworks built on top of .NET Framework 2.0 that include the following components:
This leads to the following equation:
.NET Framework 2.0 + WCF + WPF + WF + WCS = .NET Framework 3.0
This implies that there have been no changes in the core of .NET Framework 2.0 (CLR). In fact, when you install .NET Framework 3.0, you'll also get .NET Framework 2.0 in the Microsoft.NET directory.
Here are the supported platforms for .NET Frameworks:
| 2.0: |
Win9x, Win2k, |
XP, W2k3, Vista, LHS (Longhorn Server) |
| 3.0: |
|
XP, W2k3, Vista, LHS |
It should be noted that .NET Framework 3.0 will be pre-installed in Vista.
.NET Framework will evolve beyond 3.0, of course. At the moment it appears that LINQ may become a part of the next version of .NET Framework.