.NET Core framework

.NET Core is a cross-platform open source development framework that runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS and cross architecture with support for x86, x64, and ARM. .NET Core was forked from .NET Framework, which technically makes it a subset of the latter, though streamlined line, and modular. .NET Core is a development platform that gives you great flexibility in developing and deploying applications. The new platform frees you from hassles usually experienced during application deployment. Thus, you don't have to worry about managing versions of application runtime on deployment servers.

Currently, in Version 2.0.7, .NET Core includes the .NET runtime with great performance and many features. Microsoft claims it's the fastest version of .NET platform. It has more APIs and more project templates have been added, such as those for developing ReactJS and AngularJS applications that run on .NET Core. Also, Version 2.0.7 has a set of command-line tools that enables you to build and run command-line applications with ease on the different platforms, as well as simplified packaging and support for Visual Studio for Macintosh. A big by-product of .NET Core is the cross-platform modular web framework, ASP.NET Core, which is a total redesign of ASP.NET and runs on .NET Core.

.NET Framework is robust and contains several libraries for use in application development. However, some of the framework's components and libraries can couple with the Windows operating system. For example the System.Drawing library depends on Windows GDI, which is why .NET Framework cannot be considered cross-platform even though it has different implementations.

In order to make .NET Core truly cross-platform, components such as Windows Forms and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) that have strong dependence on the Windows OS have been removed from the platform. ASP.NET Web Forms and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) have also been removed and replaced with ASP.NET Core MVC and ASP.NET Core Web API. Additionally, Entity Framework (EF) has been streamlined to make it cross-platform and named Entity Framework Core.

Also, because of the dependency that .NET Framework has on the Windows OS, Microsoft could not open the code base. However, .NET Core is fully open source, hosted on GitHub, and has a thriving developer community, constantly working on new features and extending the scope of the platform.