14 DAY TRIAL // Ahead of its first year on the market, .NET Framework 4 will be offered for customers that are currently taking advantage of the minimal server installation options of Windows Server 2008 R2. According to one member of the Windows Server Core team, the Redmond company has been indeed working on making .NET Framework 4 available on Server Core.
And it appears that customers will not have to wait all that long either, as the new flavor of .NET 4 is expected by the end of March 2011.
Of course, customers will also need to upgrade their existing Windows Server version to the latest release of the operating system.
In this regard, it’s no coincidence that the software giant also plans to release Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 in Q1 2011.
Customers will need Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 in order to take advantage of .Net Framework 4 on server core deployments.
“I’m happy to announce that in Q1 of 2011, there will be a release of .NET Framework 4 supporting the Server Core installation option.
“This will require Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, which has publicly been stated to release in Q1. Like in .NET 2.0 and .NET 3.5, with .NET Framework 4, you will be able to build and run managed applications that use ASP.NET, WCF, WF, Windows Services and Console Applications,” the Windows Server Core team representative explained.
Those not familiar with the Server Core installation need to know that Microsoft allows customers to install the bare minimum components of Windows Server to perform specific actions while benefitting from such advantages as a considerably reduced attack surface.
“Server Core is a minimal server installation option for computers running on the Windows Server 2008 operating system or later. Server Core provides a low-maintenance server environment with limited functionality,” Microsoft reveals.
.NET Framework 4 RTM is available for download here.