.NET Framework 2.0
The .NET Framework sits on top of the operating system, which can be any recently released version of Windows, including Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003. Currently, the .NET Framework consists of:
Compilers for five official languages (C#, Visual Basic, Managed C++, J#, and the Jscript scripting language).
A number of related class libraries, collectively known as the Framework Class Library (FCL) , that include support for Windows and web applications, data access, web services, and more.
The Common Language Runtime (CLR), the object-oriented engine at the heart of the Framework that translates the intermediate code generated by the language compilers into the native code required to execute the application.
The .NET Framework is an integral part of Windows Server 2003 but must be downloaded and installed to run on Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
Tip
Because the CLR translates all code to a common interactive language that is later complied to native code, .NET can, in principle, be implemented on Unix, Linux, Mac OS X, or any other operating system.
Figure 1-1 breaks down the .NET Framework into its architectural components.

Figure 1-1. .NET Framework architecture
The CLR executes your program on your web server. The CLR activates objects, performs security checks on them, lays them out in memory, executes them, and handles garbage collection.
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