Introduction to .NET Core

Welcome to the introductory guide for .NET Core. This section provides a high-level overview of what .NET Core is, its core principles, and why it's a powerful platform for building modern, cross-platform applications.

What is .NET Core?

.NET Core is a free, open-source, cross-platform framework for building many different types of applications. It's a modern evolution of the .NET platform, designed to be lightweight, modular, and highly performant.

Cross-Platform: .NET Core runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Open-Source: Developed collaboratively by Microsoft and the .NET community on GitHub.
High Performance: Optimized for speed and resource efficiency.
Modular: Allows developers to include only the components they need for their applications.
Unified Platform: .NET 5 and later versions unify .NET Core and .NET Framework into a single .NET platform.

Key Principles

.NET Core is built upon several fundamental principles:

Modern Development: Supports the latest programming language features and development paradigms.
Cloud-Native: Well-suited for microservices, containerization (Docker), and cloud deployments.
Developer Productivity: Offers a rich set of tools, libraries, and a productive development experience.
Performance and Scalability: Engineered to handle high loads and perform efficiently.

Common Use Cases

With .NET Core, you can build a wide range of applications, including:

Web Applications and APIs using ASP.NET Core.
Microservices.
Console Applications.
Cloud-based services.
Desktop applications (with .NET 6+).

A Glimpse into Code

Here's a simple "Hello, World!" console application example:


using System;

public class Program
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Hello, .NET Core!");
    }
}

This introductory overview sets the stage for exploring .NET Core in more detail. In the following sections, we'll dive into its architecture, key features, and how to get started with development.