Microsoft decided to rename ASP.NET 5 to ASP.NET Core 1.0. So ASP.NET 5 would be now ASP.NET Core 1.0, .NET Core 5 is now .NET Core 1.0 and Entity Framework 7 is now Entity Framework Core 1.0
Microsoft have been working towards “One ASP.NET” now for years and we’re there. ASP.NET Core is versioned as 1.0 as it’s a near complete rewrite of ASP.NET with many new features and capabilities.
ASP.NET Core 1.0 is not a continuation of ASP.NET 4.6. It is a whole new framework, a side-by-side project which happily lives alongside everything else we know. It is an actual re-write of the current ASP.NET 4.6 framework, but much smaller and a lot more modular.
To be clear, ASP.NET 4.6 is the more mature platform. It’s battle-tested and released and available today. ASP.NET Core 1.0 is a 1.0 release that includes Web API and MVC but doesn’t yet have SignalR or Web Pages. It doesn’t yet support VB or F#. It will have these subsystems someday but not today.
ASP.NET Core 1.0 – What has changed?
A better question would be what has not changed. ASP.NET Core 1.0 is a complete re-write. There is no System.Web anymore and everything which came with it.
ASP.NET Core 1.0 would be open source and cross platform. Microsoft invests a lot of money and effort, tome into making it truly cross platform portable. This means there is a new CoreCLR, You can develop, build and run an ASP.NET Core 1.0 application on a Mac, Linux or Windows machine. Microsoft heavily integrates Node.js which can be utilized to run pre- and post-build events with Grunt or Gulp.
ASP.NET Core 1.0 – Reviving ASP.NET
This is where ASP.NET Core 1.0 comes into the limelight. It is built on the same core principles which helped other languages to popularity:
- Free and open source
- Cross platform compatible
- Ease of access
- Thin, fast, modular and extensible
ASP.NET 4.6 will be soon remembered as Classic ASP.NET. It will not entirely disappear, just like Classic ASP has never fully disappeared, but new development will likely happen in ASP.NET Core going forward. I find it extremely exciting and the benefits of ASP.NET Core are too compelling to not switch over as soon as possible
