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What is Microsoft .NET?
.NET is the Microsoft solution for XML Web services, the next generation of software that connects our world of information, devices, and people in a unified, personalized way.

.NET technology enables the creation and use of XML-based applications, processes, and Web sites as services that share and combine information and functionality with each other by design, on any platform or smart device, to provide tailored solutions for organizations and individual people.

.NET is a comprehensive family of products, built on industry and Internet standards, that provide for each aspect of developing (tools), managing (servers), using (building block services and smart clients) and experiencing (rich user experiences) XML Web services. .NET will become part of the Microsoft applications, tools, and servers you already use today—as well as new products that extend XML Web service capabilities to all of your business needs.
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The above is straight from an MS webpage. And its not the only one on their site in the same vein. Now, call me simple but when I read that my reaction is: VFP can do XML web services - so can fairly claim to be .NET ... The problem of course is that .NET means quite different things to different groups of people.

Brian Abbott