Question

Two of my colleagues (and very good friends) have worked for years in Java, PHP, MYSQL, Tomcat, Struts, and the list go really on and on. I’m (the only one who chose the .NET framework). Now, our manager has convinced our boss to invest on us and some other who are willing to go through the process. So far, battles (them vs me) to convince other which framework (.Net – other free framework) has been pointless. Now, my friends have a new argument: .NET is not free.

I’d like to know how much it cost to choose .NET over the other (for instance, Java, Struts, TomCat, etc…). I’m not talking about which technology is better, but how much .NET would cost. So far, all the cost of learning was related to the purchase of my books (Visual studio Express is free).

By the way: If .NET is not free why people are still using it. Or, only big companies can use .NET???

Thanks for helping.

Answer 1

.NET is free – for download, use and anything.

What will cost you is the licenses for

• your Windows operating system (yes, you could use Linux instead – almost free)
• your development environment (Visual Studio costs money – except for the free Express editions, or you could use the free SharpDevelop IDE)
• your database server (possibly, but again: free SQL Server Express editions are available, as well as a plethora of other free products)

You can absolutely develop 100% with free software for .NET, and using .NET doesn’t cost you a thing (except the Windows OS license, maybe)