.NET framework penetration among home users?

Question

It's hard enough to find reliable numbers as to general adoption of the .NET framework. This questions concerns an even more specific case: what's the situation among home users?

I am wondering wether .NET is a good choice for a desktop application when targetting home users?

Assuming the application in question is a small-medium sized app (download, install & run), and the size of the framework is considerably larger, having the user download and install the framework just for the sake of that application seems like a big thumbs-down.

I know that Vista ships with .NET 3.0 out of the box (2003 ships with 1.1, but it's a server version), but that's just not enough considering that XP still has over 60% market share, including non-Windows systems (Accroding to hitslink.com, as of May this year).

Here's another thing: I almost can't think of any home-user targetted software that uses .NET (There's Catalyst, what else?). Why is that? Is this a clue that the framework isn't really that popular among home users?

Answer 1

If you're targeting Windows XP and someone has run windows update, then majority have it.

Windows vista came with it pre-installed.

Answer 2

I can't tell you the penetration of .NET in general but I can tell you that we have a specialty application used by very unsophisticated users that uses .NET. We just integrated it with the installation (installing only if needed) and have had absolutely no trouble whatsoever.

I am no fan of Microsoft in general (their decisions with respect to SQL Server Express border on abusive to their developer population) but they did seem to get .NET right. Credit Anders Heljsberg, not Microsoft.

Answer 3

Media Center is built with .NET Framework and Windows XP MCE has it out of the box.

Answer 4

I recently worked on a product that was targeted to .NET 3.5. Out of hundreds of beta testers, I can probably count on one hand the number that already had .NET 3.5. The rest had to sit through the absolutely painful .NET 3.5 install from microsoft (~30 minutes, and most of the time the progress bar stays near 0 so people think it is broken).