An Open Source project that provides the .NET runtime environment for platforms other than Windows. That sounds interesting, does it not? See http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page.

The Mono Project is an open development initiative sponsored by Novell to develop an open source, UNIX version of the Microsoft .NET development platform. Its objective is to enable UNIX developers to build and deploy cross-platform .NET Applications.

Mono contains a number of components useful for building new software:

* A Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) virtual machine that contains a class loader, Just-in-time compiler, and a garbage collecting runtime.

* A class library that can work with any language which works on the CLR. Both .NET compatible class libraries as well as Mono-provided class libraries are included.

* A compiler for the C# language. In the future we might work on other compilers that target the Common Language Runtime.

If you want to get started yourself start with downloading Visual Studio Express
webdeveloper:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vwd/
it is free, contains a lot of tutorials and gives you a good impression of the possibilities

I’ve collected some usefull links on
http://del.icio.us/arjaanperee/dotnet

In reaction to Lucas conception that .Net applications are webservices everywhere: Yes, you can, but i would not to advise to do so. Why losely couple components just because they are different layers in your design?

I have spent time looking for the main differences and advantages between .NET
and the ADF Framework on the net, but with no clear views.

I hope there will be more to come on this topic.

Thank you for this,

Michael