Microsoft open-sources .NET framework and makes Visual Studio 2013 Free

microsoft-net-framework-3-700x449Microsoft has has announced that it will be open-sourcing its full server-side .NET stack and making it available for use on Linux and OS X systems, in addition to Windows.

This means that developers can use the .NET framework on three of the largest operating systems on the planet. Plus, Visual Studio Community 2013 is now available for free.

The company has been working closely with the Mono community  to port the  .NET framework to an open standard and now it has the backing of the creator of .NET.

Microsoft launched .NET 12 years ago and six million developers currently use the framework. Today’s news expands the reach of that framework by allowing developers to build their apps across the three largest operating systems on the planet, with a common code base.

Visual Studio Community 2013 is being offered for free with the full extensibility. That includes the over 5,000 extensions available for Visual Studio.

Source: TNW