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.NET is a Modern Technology Actively Evolving in the Global Open Ecosystem
Recently, a news article explaining the cause of a specific companyโs ransomware incident described systems using the โ.NET Frameworkโ as outdated technology, and furthermore, included expressions that could mislead readers into thinking .NET technology as a whole is being neglected in the industry.
It is desirable to analyze the cause of incidents based on technical facts. However, discussing technology without distinguishing between the .NET Framework and the currently active .NET (6/7/8/9/10) can leave inaccurate impressions for both readers and the industry, so a more careful approach is necessary.
From a Technical Perspective
- The .NET Framework is a Windows-only platform, with version 4.8.1 being the latest. It continues to receive security patches from Microsoft and is still actively used in many legacy systems.
- In contrast, .NET (Core and current .NET) is an open-source, cross-platform framework. The latest .NET 8 is an LTS (Long Term Support) version, widely used across various operating systems and cloud environments.
- .NET continues to evolve as a foundational technology for modern web applications, distributed systems, mobile apps, AI, and cloud development, and remains a trusted part of the global developer ecosystem.
- According to the 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, .NET maintains a top-tier share in backend and full-stack development areas.
- The latest versions of .NET are globally competitive in all aspects: performance, productivity, and security.
.NET is an Open Source, Community-Driven Ecosystem
.NET is not a technology dependent on a single company, Microsoft.
Since 2014, .NET has been open-sourced under the MIT License and is developed transparently on GitHub.
There also exists the .NET Foundation, a non-profit, independent organization not affiliated with Microsoft. The .NET Foundation manages and fosters dozens of major open-source projects, supported by the participation of various global companies, individuals, and communities. It currently nurtures over 60 representative open-source software projects.
Beyond the activities of the .NET Foundation, widely used technologies and platforms such as Avalonia, Uno, Hangfire, Umbraco, and OpenSilver are being actively developed by diverse developer communities.
.NET Is Widely Used in the Industry Today
Even now, .NET serves as the foundation for numerous services and internal enterprise systems.
Major global IT companies such as AWS, Google Cloud, and JetBrains officially support the .NET runtime and development environment, and .NET is widely used as a primary application development stack in major cloud infrastructure environments.
In many enterprise environments both domestically and internationally, .NET continues to play a crucial role, based on its reliability and scalability.
The Real Issue Is Not Technology, but Operations and Management
The root cause of the recent incident lies in the operation environment, where an OS with ended security support was neglected for years. This is not a problem of a specific technology stack, but a failure of risk management at the organizational level due to insufficient ongoing maintenance and updates.
Any technology can become risky if not properly managed and maintained. The key is not the choice of technology, but how that technology is operated.
Conclusion
What matters is not whether a technology is โold,โ but how it is used and managed.
Overgeneralizing that .NET technology as a whole is vulnerable can negatively impact both developers and the technical community.
We hope that sound technical discussions continue, based on accurate distinctions and a sustained understanding of technology.
Endorsement
This statement is declared as the independent stance of an open developer community, not based on the interests of any specific company.