Microsoft Unveils .NET 9
Microsoft has made strides in advancing the.NET platform with the launch of .NET 9, a free and open-source framework tailored for developing applications. This latest release builds upon the groundwork laid by its predecessor,.NET 8, as Microsoft continues to introduce updates to enhance the platform capabilities across languages, editors, and libraries for web, mobile, desktop, gaming, and IoT applications.
In an announcement on February 13th, Microsoft emphasized its commitment to improving cloud AI-powered application development through the introduction of .NET 9. This major update focuses on streamlining developer workflows, ensuring platform compatibility, and boosting performance.
What’s new in .NET 9?
Performance boosts
The goal of .NET 9 is to improve application performance by prioritizing startup times, reducing memory usage, and enhancing runtime efficiency. Microsoft’s dedication to enhancing the speed and responsiveness of applications developed using the .NET framework is evident in these advancements.
.NET 9 focuses on enhancing runtime efficiency in monitoring applications while offering pathways to production infrastructure like Redis and Kubernetes-managed databases for developers working on native applications. These enhancements are part of the .NET Aspire initiative to streamline application development processes. The introduction of development tools in Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code complements these initiatives.
Cross-platform support
Through enhancements in .NET’s latest iteration, it aims to simplify the creation process for applications that seamlessly run across platforms such as Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and more. This update highlights the platform’s adaptability and its capability to cater to development requirements.
Enhanced tools and language features
The focus of .NET 9 is on enhancing developer productivity by upgrading C# and F# languages and refining Visual Studio. These tools have been enhanced to support smoother development processes, debugging, and better code analysis.
Cloud and online enhancements
The latest version of ASP.NET Core brings improvements aimed at optimizing the development of online applications with enhanced security features, improved speed, and simplified integration with cloud services.
.NET 9’s integration of OpenAI
.NET 9 encourages developers to incorporate AI and machine learning capabilities into their applications using the platform functionalities.
Building upon the groundwork laid by .NET 8,.NET 9 introduces tools and resources for working with OpenAI and open-source AI models. By partnering with Semantic Kernel, OpenAI, and Azure SDK, developers can look forward to an experience when incorporating AI features into their apps.
Support for microservices and containers
This update improves support for microservices and containerization, making it easier to deploy and manage applications in cloud environments.
.NET Aspire preview 3
Microsoft’s dedication to an 18-month support cycle is clear, as seen in the release of .NET 9 Preview 1, paving the way for a November launch. Alongside the preview release,.NET Aspire Preview 3 was also unveiled, enhancing the framework’s capabilities for creating distributed applications by adding support for Azure OpenAI, Apache Kafka, Oracle, MySQL, Azure Cosmos DB, and Orleans. There were also improvements made to the user interface.
Microsoft’s continuous improvement efforts demonstrate their commitment to empowering developers with a development platform that solidifies .NET as a choice for application development.