.NET Core and .NET Standard are both important components of the .NET ecosystem, but they serve different purposes and have distinct characteristics that set them apart from each other.
.NET Core:
.NET Core is a cross-platform, open-source framework for building modern, high-performance applications. It is designed to be modular, lightweight, and scalable, making it well-suited for a wide range of development scenarios, including web applications, microservices, cloud-native applications, and more.
One of the key features of .NET Core is its ability to run on multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. This cross-platform support allows developers to build and deploy applications on their platform of choice without being tied to a specific operating system.
.NET Core also offers a rich set of libraries and tools for building modern applications, including support for web development with ASP.NET Core, data access with Entity Framework Core, and cloud integration with Azure services. Its modular architecture allows developers to include only the components they need for their application, resulting in smaller and more efficient deployments.
.NET Standard:
.NET Standard, on the other hand, is a formal specification that defines a set of APIs (application programming interfaces) that must be implemented by .NET platforms in order to be compliant with the standard. Think of .NET Standard as a set of rules or guidelines that ensure compatibility and interoperability between different .NET implementations.
The primary purpose of .NET Standard is to establish a common set of APIs that developers can rely on when building libraries and components that are intended to be used across different .NET platforms, such as .NET Framework, .NET Core, and Xamarin. By targeting .NET Standard, developers can ensure that their libraries will work seamlessly across a wide range of .NET implementations without requiring separate versions for each platform.
While both .NET Core and .NET Standard are important components of the .NET ecosystem, they serve different purposes. .NET Core is a cross-platform framework for building modern applications, while .NET Standard is a specification that defines a common set of APIs for interoperability between different .NET platforms.
