Please do _not_ give up .NET.

Where does this bizarre idea, that no program should use .NET, come from? I see it for almost every GAotD, but it makes no sense. The target platform for programs are specified as being platforms for which .NET is a relevant part: it is freely available, and it is a framework upon which some of the best software is built. It is a legacy-supporting system which allows OSs back to XP the ability to run many programs with minimal duplication of code. Yes, all these programs +could+ be made .NET independent, at the price of gigantic program size. Then, the complaint would be "Use a framework so we aren't giving up so many gigs of disk space to programs!!!!!"

Some of us remember the days when Microsoft ordered everyone to use only the functions that they had made visible to their own compilers, so that only Microsoft could use the hidden, faster and more capable, functions that were already in the OS. .NET makes everything available and provides additional, commonly-used functions, and conforms to the standards for programming in Windows. If you don't use it, you are essentially re-writing code that Microsoft gives you for free...with the result that you waste time, make your software more expensive, and risk crashing the system (and/or other software) in ways that are very very annoying!