why DID microsoft make .NET? like, the benefit of a VM is portability so why make a VM and then be like "... and it will only run on x86 windows computers! :3"
i guess so that they could have multiple languages all target the same common language runtime and interop easily?
@eniko This is a really good question. There's a lot of interesting speculation, here. What's also interesting is that the information available *at the time* also feels like speculation. I did a DDG search for "pc magazine microsoft dot net" between 12/1998 and 12/2002 and all the stuff I found was really vague and markety. I think the most concrete claim I found was this: https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-evolution-of-the-net-technologies/ which claims it was written to promote "open standards" for servers(???)
Wild stuff. 
The Microsoft .NET initiative is all-encompassing, ever-present, and in certain ways, brand-new—but the underlying technologies have been with us for some time. In this article, we’ll explore the evolutionary process that made .NET possible, from MS-DOS and the iterations of Windows to ActiveX. It’s all come together to culminate in .NET.
Eniko (moved ➡ gamedev.place)
Gorgeous na Shock!