Confusing .NET and C# naming conventions

4/10 Low

Microsoft's rebranding of .NET Core to .NET and frequent changes to target framework monikers (e.g., .netcoreapp3.X to .net5+) creates confusion. The naming strategy makes it harder for developers to understand version compatibility, especially when .NET Framework 4.0 still exists alongside .NET 5+.

.NETC#
Category
compatibility
Workaround
hack
Stage
onboarding
Freshness
persistent
Scope
framework
Upstream
wontfix
Recurring
Yes
Buyer Type
team
Maintainer
slow

Sources

Collection History

Query: “What are the most common pain points with C# for developers in 2025?”4/5/2026

On one hand, we have ".NET Core" renamed to ".NET". Everything is .NET now... For some time, they were `.netcoreapp1.X`, `.netcoreapp2.X`, and `.netcoreapp3.X`. But one day, they changed it... Let's jump to `.net5`.

Created: 4/5/2026Updated: 4/5/2026