It's complicated. This site will give you a rundown of all the related pieces and how they fit together.
There are a lot of individual pieces in the .NET ecosystem. Lets get a brief overview of them now.
This is the original implementation of the .NET platform, primarily for Windows. It includes a large class library known as the Framework Class Library (FCL) and provides language interoperability across several programming languages. It has its version numbering scheme, such as 2.0, 3.5, 4.0, etc.
This is a cross-platform, open-source, and modular implementation of the .NET framework. It was designed to run on Windows, macOS, and Linux. .NET Core has its version numbering scheme, such as 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, etc.
.NET Standard is a specification that defines a set of APIs that all .NET implementations must provide to ensure consistency across different .NET platforms. It's essentially a set of APIs that developers can rely on being available on any .NET implementation that claims to support a particular version of .NET Standard.
This is the environment that executes .NET applications. It includes the Common Language Runtime (CLR), which provides various services like garbage collection, exception handling, and security, among others.
This refers to a specific version of a particular flavor of the .NET platform, such as .NET Core or .NET Framework.
C# is a programming language developed by Microsoft as part of the .NET initiative. It is a simple, modern, object-oriented language designed for building a variety of applications that run on the .NET Framework, .NET Core, and other compatible platforms. C# is widely used for developing desktop, web, and mobile applications within the .NET ecosystem.
F# is a functional-first programming language developed by Microsoft Research. It is a strongly-typed, multi-paradigm language that is part of the .NET ecosystem. F# emphasizes functional programming concepts such as immutability, higher-order functions, and pattern matching. It is particularly well-suited for tasks involving parallelism, asynchronous programming, and data-oriented programming. F# can be used to build a wide range of applications, including web applications, data processing pipelines, and scientific computing projects.
Visual Basic is a full-fledged programming language developed by Microsoft. It was widely used for building desktop applications, especially during the 1990s and early 2000s. Visual Basic provides a simple and intuitive syntax that allows developers to quickly build Windows-based applications with graphical user interfaces (GUIs). VB can be compiled into executable files or run using an interpreter.
VBScript, on the other hand, is a scripting language developed by Microsoft and based on Visual Basic. It is primarily used for client-side and server-side scripting within web pages and web applications. VBScript is interpreted by web browsers or server-side scripting engines (like Internet Information Services, or IIS, for ASP applications). VBScript is typically embedded within HTML documents to add interactivity or perform server-side processing.
VB.NET is the modern version of Visual Basic that is fully integrated into the .NET framework. It retains the ease of use and familiarity of Visual Basic syntax while incorporating the features and capabilities of the .NET framework. VB.NET is used primarily for building desktop, web, and mobile applications within the .NET ecosystem.
ASP (Active Server Pages) Classic is a server-side scripting environment developed by Microsoft for building dynamic web pages and web applications. It uses VBScript or JScript as its scripting language and is based on COM (Component Object Model). ASP Classic was the predecessor to ASP.NET and is now considered a legacy technology.
ASP.NET is a web development framework developed by Microsoft for building modern web applications and services. It provides a robust and scalable environment for developing web applications using various programming languages, including C#, F# and VB.NET. ASP.NET offers features like state management, authentication, and data access. It includes several sub-frameworks, such as Web Forms, MVC (Model-View-Controller), Web API, and Razor Pages, which cater to different application architectures and development styles.
In summary, .NET is a platform that encompasses multiple implementations like .NET Framework, .NET Core, and now individual "versions" of .NET 8, all aiming to provide a unified development and runtime environment for building and running applications. Each flavor of .NET has its own version numbering scheme to denote specific releases and updates, while C# serves as one of the primary programming languages for developing applications within the .NET ecosystem.