.NET Core is
Microsoft’s open source, cross platform framework to build Web and mobile apps. Microsoft just released the new and improved version of .NET Core. The new version is .NET Core 2.0. Not only .NET Core 2.0 is faster than its predecessor 1.x, it also brings several new features.
You can build .NET Core 2.0 applications using commands line console. If you use Visual Studio for your development, you can download recently released Visual Studio 2015 version 15.3 and need to install .NET Core 2.0 separately.
You can download .NET Core here - Download .NET Core 2.0.
In this article, let’s take a look at what is new in .NET Core 2.0.
Performance
.NET Core 2.0 is 20% faster than its previous version .NET Core 1.0.
.NET Standard 2.0 API Improvements
.NET Core 2.0 supports .NET Standard 2.0 API. In .NET Standard 2.0, you will find the following familiar APIs.
- XML - XLinq, XML Document, XPath, Schema, and XSL.
- Serialization – BinaryFormatter, Data Contract, XML
- Networking – Sockets, HTTP, Mail, WebSockets
- IO – Files, Compression, MMF
- Threading – Threads, Thread Pool, Tasks
- Core – Primitives, Collections, Reflection, Interop, Linq
Razor Pages
Razor Pages is a new feature of ASP.NET Core MVC that makes coding page-focused scenarios easier and more productive. Razor pages works with .NET Core 2.0 or higher and are supported by Visual Studio 2017 v 15.3 or later only. Learn more about Razor pages: Get started with Razor pages
Language Support
.NET Core 2.0 support C#, F#, and Visual Basic. C# 7.1 version is supported now that has few new features including async Main method, inferred tuple names, and default expressions.
Runtime Store
In .NET Core 2.0, dotnet store command runs implicitly.
Retargeting to .NET Core 2.0
Once .NET Core 2.0 SDK is installed, projects that target .NET Core 1.x can be retargeted to .NET Core 2.0.
Platform Improvements
.NET Core 2.0 offers a single Linux implementation that works on multiple Linux distributions. .NET Core 1.x required that you download a distribution-specific Linux implementation.
.NET Core 1.x on macOS required the OpenSSL toolkit's cryptographic library. .NET Core 2.0 uses the Apple cryptographic libraries and doesn't require OpenSSL, so you no longer need to install it.
Other Features
- .NET Core 2.0 with Visual Studio 2017 v 15.3 now installs several new project templates including JS libraries and frameworks including Angular, Aurelia, Knockout, React, React-redux and Vue development.
- Authentication app support in templates
- Azure diagnostics and live analytics
- No need to reference individual packages. One package will do it all.
- New and improved Visual Studio tooling and great VS Mac support available now.
- RedHat has a RedHat version of .NET Core 2.0.
Watch Scott Hunter and other speakers in this video to learn more about new features of .NET Core 2.0.