.NET

A Microsoft operating system platform that incorporates applications, a suite of tools and services and a change in the infrastructure of the company's Web strategy.

There are four main principles of .NET from the perspective of the user:

It erases the boundaries between applications and the Internet. Instead of interacting with an application or a single Web site, .NET will connect the user to an array of computers and services that will exchange and combine objects and data.

Software will be rented as a hosted service over the Internet instead of purchased on a store shelf. Essentially, the Internet will be housing all your applications and data.

Users will have access to their information on the Internet from any device, anytime, anywhere.

There will be new ways to interact with application data, such as speech and handwriting recognition.

.NET depends on four Internet standards:
HTML
XML
SOAP
UDDI

The first Windows .NET operating system was released in 2001. Microsoft views this new technology as revolutionary, enabling Internet users to do things that were never before possible, such as integrate fax, e-mail and phone services, centralize data storage and synchronize all of a users computing devices to be automatically updated.