I don't have .NET (either version) installed and don't plan on doing
it any time soon. I've tried it a couple of times just to find out what
it's all about, but I don't like it based on a gut feeling, and have not
installed it on this fresh installation (at least I THINK none of it is
installed; who knows what changes to a system Microsoft's Updates really
make?)
As far as I can tell, .NET is a step in the direction of Microsoft's
goal of renting software that is only available if a person has an
internet connection. A step towards converting your computer into a
"workstation" and destroying its stand alone capabilities. It enables
use of software living on a server somewhere, that temporarily installs
a portion of itself on your system only long enough for you to
accomplish the task at hand.
Microsoft has been obfuscatory for a long time about what .NET really
is. In fact, I even contacted them directly and asked for a better
definition of what it is. All I got from them was that it allows
programming in several languages. That's what I call a "non-answer" and
whenever you can't get straight information from Microsoft about
anything, it's always something that you're not going to like and which
will make you more of a Microserf.
Now, as time goes by, they're starting to make it more clear what
it's all about. If you don't believe me, go to this site:
http://www.microsoft.com/net/basics.mspx
and read between the lines of their euphemistic blather.
They want to rent you software, not sell you licenses to use it
indefinitely or to allow you to have a copy of it on your hard drive.
To this end, for instance, they do a couple of things to users of MS Office:
1. Certain non-vital portions of the suite (for instance, clipart) are
only available if you go online and get it. This is to get you used to
the idea of having to be online in order to use software.
2. it's often necessary for you to reinsert the installation CDs in
order to install a component of the suite (for instance, document format
converters) that should have been included in the installation from the
start.
The reason they probably do the second is to:
a. get the public used to having to request components that they need
b. make it as much a pain in the ass as possible (finding those darned
CDs!) so that when they finally drop the bomb about the next version of
MSO being rented, people will be relieved to a certain degree that
obtaining needed components will be "easier".
Not only that, but the distinct *possibility* (notice that I use the
word POSSIBILITY) exists that eventually Microsoft will start using
processing cycles from your system in some large "mega-computer network"
scheme, and then selling the collective processing cycles to various
large businesses. It may explain why Gates wants everybody online, all
the time. That is to say, if they're not already doing this covertly.
How would anybody know? Just to go the list of XP services, there are
already things like DCOM, DLTC, Network DDE, NLA, Network Provisioning,
QoS RSVP, Remote Access Auto Connection, RPC, Routing and Remote Access,
System Event Notification, TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper, TERMINAL SERVICES for
God's sake! WebClient, WMI, etc. etc. Not to mention that Netmeeting and
Messenger are being shoved down everybody's throat. All of this crap is
totally unneeded on a single user computer like mine, so why is it
installed by default?
Doc accuses me of wanting to go back in time. It looks to me like
Microsoft and Bill Gates are the ones who are going that direction.
And that's what's wrong with the at-first-glance "benign" .NET. All I
can say is, keep your eye on the MS EULAs.
I do not intend to get in a flame war about this issue. These are my
opinions on the matter and nothing... NOTHING, is going to change them.