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I've seen many questions on SO about .NET 3.5 advantages, but these are more leaned towards language features and easier development. Are there any non-developer-wise advantages for using .NET 3.5? Bugs, fixes, advantages over time?

Background:

  1. Desktop application that works in conjuction with a device driver.
  2. We wanted to support as much configurations as possible, we settled for .NET 3.0. All of the functionality we really need is in .NET 3.0
  3. But I so want to use LINQ and all the other new framework features. These don't help the users one bit, though.
Eran Betzalel
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moogs
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  • See one Similar question in SO http://stackoverflow.com/questions/810693/net-3-5-vs-net-3-0 – Sauron Sep 11 '09 at 08:51

3 Answers3

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These don't help the users one bit, though.

Making programmers more productive and effective (which LINQ certainly can) does help users. By reducing development time1 customers get solutions faster.

1 Alternately increase scope or quality --- reducing cost of current quality and scope allows any one or two of the three factors (time, cost, quality) to be adjusted.

Richard
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  • +1. Not only it can reduce development time but also improve quality as we write less code(=> less bugs). – Darin Dimitrov Sep 11 '09 at 08:44
  • @darin: now added (had also occurred to me shortly after posting :-)). – Richard Sep 11 '09 at 08:50
  • i'm aware of this. The software is used worldwide so having a simpler installation (less support calls!) far outweighs any decrease in development time. – moogs Sep 15 '09 at 06:58
  • "any decrease in development time" --- since this is with a device driver, the typical development cycle is longer than your usual software-only solution – moogs Sep 15 '09 at 07:00
  • @moogs: See the footnote, the increased efficiency can be used for other things. And I don't understand the "simpler implmentation": you use the MS installer for .NET so it is just a matter of having a different installer. – Richard Sep 15 '09 at 08:55
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A link I found in wikipedia lists a few nice features: http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2007/07/27/what-s-new-in-wpf-3-5-here-s-fifteen-cool-features.aspx

Vilx-
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0

NetFx v3.5 includes updates for those two existing frameworks. However, those updates are not a whole bunch of new features or changes, but in reality a service pack with predominantly bug fixes and perf improvements. So to revisit the terminology: Fx 3.5 includes v2.0 SP1 and v3.0 SP1. Like with all service packs, there should be nothing in there that could break your application. Having said that, if a bug is fixed in the SP and your code was taking advantage of that bug, then your code will break of course. To be absolutely clear, this is an in-place upgrade to v2 and v3, not a side-by-side story at the framework/clr level.

Sauron
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