.NET Core using a couple dumb animal analogies

I hang out on reddit once in a while, specifically the dotnet subreddit, and there’s been a trend…

A caricature of this trend might sound something like

“HOLY SHIT, DOTNET IS CHANGING SO F#CKING FAST I CAN’T KEEP UP!”

I get it. It’s quite a bit of change. And for someone who has had their head down in the thick of an older .NET Framework project, it can seem like a nightmare. You just want to stay in your cozy and familiar little Web Forms cave and forget about it. (It’s -2 degrees here in Maine right now so I understand.)

Anyway, I decided it would be fun to describe what .NET Core is using silly analogies. The tech-speak documentation doesn’t seem to do it justice, so maybe this way will. So here goes…

.NET Framework

.NET Framework is like the tired old bulldog, chained to the doghouse that is Microsoft and the Windows OS. He has been loyal, consistent, and powerful. We know him well. If we need him, we get ALL of him and we need to be on HIS territory.

.NET Core

.NET Core is like the flock of bats, hanging in the cave that is NuGet. Individual or groups of bats fly out together, free of (operating system) limitation. They are lightweight and nimble yet mysterious and moving erratically.

That’s it! I know you can do better. Way better. Tweet one with hashtag #netcoreanalogy.