.NET Framework 3.0 and 3.5
It may seem counterintuitive to say that ASP.NET is still at version 2.0 when VS2008 comes with version 3.5 of the .NET Framework, but it is true: the version number for the System.Web assembly in which ASP.NET sits has changed only in its minor version, from v2.0.50727.42 in .NET 2.0 to v2.0.50727.1434 in .NET 3.5. Rather confusingly, Microsoft decided to use the release of .NET 3.0 and .NET 3.5 to indicate the addition of new libraries to the framework rather than any specific updates to what was already there. Figure 1-1 shows the basic makeup of the .NET Framework 2.0 for ASP.NET developers.

Figure 1-1. The .NET Framework 2.0 stack
November 2006 saw the release of .NET 3.0, a superset of .NET 2.0 in which the only change apart from the inclusion of interim bug fixes was the inclusion of the four WinFX libraries being developed in parallel for the launch of Windows Vista:
- Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
Targeting mainly Windows Forms developers, WPF hasn’t directly affected ASP.NET development. However, Microsoft has released a cross-platform browser plug-in hosting its own subset of the .NET runtime and WPF, originally known as WPF/Everywhere. Rechristened Silverlight, the 1.0 plug-in uses JavaScript as its main language. Silverlight 2.0, however, incorporates support for C# and VB.NET and will be a central focus for the next release of .NET after ...