.Net 3.0

[acz]

The Windows Update site has been telling me for a while to get
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0: x86 (KB928416)

I keep putting it off, mostly because I don't know why I would need it. I have not seen any website or application that told me it needs the latest .NET version.

That said, according to the Add/Remove programs list on my Thinkpad I already have the following installed
.NET Framework 1.1
.NET Framework 1.1 Hotfix (KB886903)
.NET Framework 2.0 with two security updates (KB917283 and KB922770)

There is no size shown there for version 1.1 but version 2.0 plus updates is 88 megabytes in size.

I tried to read about .net at the Microsoft website, but I am too dumb or too dense to understand it.
Can someone tell me what it does and why I need it? Should I take out the old version?

Thanks.

[Wiz]

If you never missed .NET Framework 3.0 you probably don't need it yet. It's hard to tell if you can take out .Net 1.1 and 2.0. Some applications you use might need them. I once removed .Net 1.1 and found out that i had one application that need .Net 1.1 and it wouldn't start anymore even if i still had 2.0 installed. I just reinstalled .Net 1.1 and everything was fine again. So if you try to uninstall any of them it should be easy to reinstall if you really need it later.
Now i have them all installed on my computer and it never gave me any problems so unless you have a good reason to remove .Net 1.1 and 2.0 i don't see why you should.
.Net is a framework some developers use to develop applications and those applications won't work unless you have .Net on your computer.

[Puppy]

It is a "runtime" environment for .NET applications. Something which will replace "old" native unsafe Win32 applications in the future. It could be compared to Java runtime but it is developed by a company (read Microsoft) which has resources to be able to develop such complex technology.

All versions can coexists side-by-side. NET 1.0 is pretty outdated, you don't need it. .NET 2.0 is current version. Unfortunately .NET 3.0 is marketing term, it is rather something like 2.5 version. It should be safe to remove 1.1 version and have the latest only because it is backward compatible. On the other hand, it has about 25 MB on disk so who cares ...

Although the main target of .NET platform are server applications there are also end-user ones, for example Paint.NET.

[Wiz]

All versions can coexists side-by-side. NET 1.0 is pretty outdated, you don't need it. .NET 2.0 is current version. Unfortunately .NET 3.0 is marketing term, it is rather something like 2.5 version. It should be safe to remove 1.1 version and have the latest only because it is backward compatible. On the other hand, it has about 25 MB on disk so who cares ...
Although the main target of .NET platform are server applications there are also end-user ones.

That it's safe to remove .Net 1.1 because of backward compatibility is not necessarily correct. Some applications like software from Sony Media require .Net 1.1 or it won't work at all even if .Net 2.0 and 3.0 is installed. There are several .Net application already and i'm sure there will be much more because it's faster and easier to develop software using .Net. My opinion is that the main target for .Net is development in general and not mainly server applications.

[Purcy]

I would agree, just leave them on there. They aren't that large and you really don't know which programs you've had require them. My husband's PC is not connected to the internet so does not receive updates and his music program Sony Acid Pro requires .net 2.0, so I had to download it to my laptop, carry by flash drive and install it on his PC. But now his program works. Take the download of .net 3.0 and then you won't be bothered with it anymore.