Notes and Disclaimers

• Based on the wikipedia drawing of .NET Framework versions.
• A lot of details are missing such is the art of summarizing.
• A lot of alternative .NET Runtimes are missing; Mono, Silverlight etc.
• Errors are probably present and in addition there are discrepancies between sources and could not double check everything.
• Features depicted as part of a version are probably not always representative. Additionally, there is no consistency in highlighted features since often more about what else was in a release. Some releases have a lot of new features while others not, but instead focus on performance or similar. So don’t judge a release only on new features.
• No room to mention all the amazing performance improvements.
• .NET is not just C# and a given C# version is not constrained to a given .NET release. For example, C# 10 can be used to target .NET Framework 4.5. Some newer features may not work or require adding a bit of attribute code in that case.

Sources

• .NET Framework version history
• .NET Framework versions and dependencies
• What’s new in .NET Framework
• A History of .NET Runtimes
• Microsoft .NET Core Versions History
• .NET (wikipedia)
• Announcing .NET Core 1.0
• Announcing .NET Core 1.1
• Announcing .NET Core 2.0
• Announcing .NET Core 2.1
• All About Span: Exploring a New .NET Mainstay
• Announcing .NET Core 2.2
• Announcing .NET Core 3.0
• The RyuJIT transition is complete!
• Announcing .NET Core 3.1
• Announcing .NET 5.0
• Announcing .NET 6 — The Fastest .NET Yet
• The history of C#
• C Sharp (programming language)
• Roslyn (compiler)
• The Rough History of The So Many C# Compilers