Finally the wait is over! In the .NET Conference 2019, Microsoft released the .NET Core 3.0 that now supports Windows desktop apps like WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) and Windows Forms, along with C# 8 language features.
Here's everything that you would like to know about .NET Core 3.0 and the links to download the SDK and runtime for different platforms.
- .NET Core 3.0 (SDK, Runtime) is now available for download.
- .NET Core 3.0 is part of Visual Studio 2019 v16.3 and Visual Studio for Mac 8.3.
- .NET Core 3.1 (LTS) is targeted to release on November 2019.
What's new in .NET Core 3.0?
.NET Core 3.0 brings support for Windows Desktop apps built with WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) and Windows Forms. This includes new templates and an updated XAML designer and XAML Hot Reload. The WPF designer is part of Visual Studio 2019 16.3. The Windows Forms designer is still in preview and available as a VSIX download.
The dotnet publish command supports packaging your app into a platform-specific single-file executable. This form of single EXE is effectively a self-extracting executable. It contains all dependencies, including native dependencies and resources. Thus, you can now launch the .NET Core apps directly without using the dotnet command.
.NET Core 3.0 now includes a setting that will use the IL linker tool to scan the IL of your app. This tool detects what code is required, and then trims the unused libraries.
C# 8.0 language support adds the new features like async streams, range/index, more patterns and nullable reference types. The F# 4.7 focuses on making some thing easier with implicit yield expressions and some syntax relaxations. It also includes support for LangVersion, and ships with nameof and opening of static classes in preview.
The .NET Standard 2.1 increases the set of types you can now use with both .NET Core and Xamarin. The .NET Standard 2.1 includes types since .NET Core 2.1.
Performance is greatly improved across many components. The garbage collector uses less memory by default, often a lot less. This improvement is very beneficial for scenarios where many applications are hosted on the same server.
High performance JSON APIs have been added, for reader/writer, object model and serialization scenarios. Raspberry Pi and ARM chips are now supported to enable IoT development, including with the remote Visual Studio debugger.
You can checkout this link to know more on the latest features in .NET Core 3.0.
How to download .NET Core 3.0?
.NET Core 3.0 is supported in Visual Studio 2019 v16.3 and above. If you have already upgraded to Visual Studio 2019 v16.3, it is already included there but you may have to install the required workload/components using the Visual Studio installer. You can also separately download the .NET Core 3.0 SDK and Runtime for Windows, MacOS and Linux from the below links:
- Download .NET Core 3.0 SDK for Windows (x86 | x64)
- Download .NET Core 3.0 Runtime for Windows (x86 | x64)
- Download .NET Core 3.0 SDK for MacOS (x64)
- Download .NET Core 3.0 Runtime for MacOS (x64)
.NET Core 3.1 is targeted to release on November 2019, which will have long-termed support (LTS). Developers can now adopt the changes of .NET Core 3.0 and then easily upgrade their applications once .NET Core 3.1 releases.