.NET 5 — A Unified Platform for All .NET Developers

Microsoft announced .NET 5.0 at MSBuild 2019—a unified platform for building applications targeting Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, and more.

Microsoft announced the roadmap for .NET at the recent MSBuild 2019. The release of .NET 5.0 scheduled for November 2020 will be a unified platform for building various .NET application types targeting Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, and more operating systems. Just one .NET going ahead.

.NET 5.0 is the evolution of .NET Core based on .NET Standard. The .NET project aims to produce a single runtime and framework that will run various modern .NET workloads on multiple platforms: desktop, web, cloud, mobile, IoT.

Microsoft simplified the names; we will no longer need to differentiate .NET as "Core" or "Full" framework — it will be just one .NET. Core is the future.

The ASP.NET Web Forms, WCF, and Windows Workflow Foundation will remain on the .NET Framework with no plans to port to .NET 5.0. Microsoft has suggested migration paths: WCF to gRPC, WF to open-source Core Workflow, and ASP.NET Web Forms to Blazor.