Microsoft releases .Net Core 1.0 to go beyond Windows

In the ongoing efforts to support the open source community, Microsoft has released .Net Core 1.0. The new .Net runtime platform is opened to the community and is available as a cross-platform offering across Linux and Mac OS X in addition to the company’s proprietary Windows operating system.

Microsoft announced the first release of .Net Core back in 2014, but the platform takes more than a year to take its final shape. The Redmond giant has also revealed ASP .Net Core 1.0 as an open source, modular version of the original ASP .Net framework.

Additionally, Microsoft has expanded its existing partnership with Red Hat to debut its .Net Core on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenShift. The open source company has asserted its full support for the new runtime platform.

“Today, we’re pleased to announce that .NET Core is now not only available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenShift via certified containers, but is supported by Red Hat and extended via the integrated hybrid support partnership between Microsoft and Red Hat,” Red Hat team writes in a statement.

The new development is aimed to help enterprises build new solutions on .Net and test them directly on computing platforms other than Windows. It might be considered as a backdrop by Microsoft for its own operating system. However, the software giant is targeting to please more developers through the new announcement.

Developer support in the very initial stage

The Windows maker claims that already about 18,000 developers from over 1,300 companies have contributed to the initial development of .Net Core. This is just a beginning but certainly quite a huge one to make the new platform successful in the market.

Microsoft could use the developer contributions in expanding its existing product offerings. Also, the extensive community support would bring .Net in line with Java and other developer platforms.

Developers can leverage solutions like Portable Class Libraries (PCL) to take advantage of .Net Core 1.0 and enhance their existing apps. Likewise, there are Xamarin tools to enable app development for multiple platforms using the new open source model.

Open source everywhere

Microsoft isn’t alone in the race of developing new open source technologies. Facebook and Google are also pioneering the community-driven field with their models. While Facebook has framework React to support developers, Google is making things easier for the AI world through TensorFlow.

The success of .Net Core is yet to be derived. Nonetheless, it already brought Microsoft closer to Red Hat and the ever-growing open source community.