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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-25T23:54:49+00:00

I wanted to learn .NET Microframework and found that there is (among others) Netduino

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I wanted to learn .NET Microframework and found that there is (among others) Netduino which is somehow compatible with Arduino. Recently .NET Gadgeteer came to public. There was a lot of enthusiasm, so it looks like important step for .NET Microframework.

Is it possible to compare them somehow? I’m not sure for what tasks is better Netduino and for what tasks Gadgeteer. Or are they in fact completely different beasts?

I’m unable to read this from information available on home pages, because there are mostly marketing materials.

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  1. Editorial Team

    Netduino (and other HW boards, including GHI’s FEZ products) are HW devices with an MicroProcessor running .NET Microframework – but in an form factor that resembles Ardunio, meaning you can plug other boards (or shields) on top of the mainboard to extend its functionality.

    .NET Gadgeteer is something different:

    • .NET Gadgeteer Hardware

      • A .NET Gadgeteer system is composed of a mainboard containing an embedded processor and a variety of modules which connect to the mainboard through a simple plug-and-play interface. There are lots of .NET Gadgeteer modules available today: display, camera, networking, storage, input controls, and more modules are being designed all the time!

      • The .NET Gadgeteer mainboard’s sockets are numbered, and each is labeled with one or more letters which indicate which modules can be plugged into it
        CPU is more powerful than Netduino class of devices.

    • Gadgeteer runtime

      • Gadgeteer is 100% C# managed code so it is not tied to any firmware (C++ code). http://gadgeteer.codeplex.com/

      • It is an “Open socket-connections standard”.
        You can get a module from company x, another module from company y and use both on mainboard from company z, even if you didn’t have design files. All will work together nicely. Of course someone may come up with an advanced model that requires special software but mostly modules will simply work.

      • You can even make your own modules to go on any mainboard…this is the beauty of gadgeteer.
        Think of this as “arduino shield like” but better since there is no pin overlapping and you are not limited to couple shields before the board is too long to be usable. You could even take the gadgeteer socket standard and use it on a board that is not running NETMF at all , but you will lose all the nice software gadgeteer provides.

    • For details about the runtime check out the documents at Codeplex, http://gadgeteer.codeplex.com/releases/view/72208

    For more information check out:

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