The history of .NET by Richard Campbell

You can learn a lot from history because there’s a lot to be learned from walking down the roads of your forebearers.

In 2017, .NET turned 15 years old. That’s an impressive survival time, given how fast the technology turnover can be in our industry.

It was an anniversary that is close to my heart, as .NET is the platform for most of the industry events that I have been involved with, and it is at those events that I met many of my closest friends. I became a Microsoft Regional Director around the time of the birth of NET, so many of my colleagues probably feel very similar.

Unbelievably, I met Richard Campbell before he was a Regional Director, before he was co-host of .NET Rocks, the internet audio talk show for .NET Developers (or “podcast” as they’re now known), and before .NET.

Today, of all those aforementioned things, Richard Campbell is most known as the co-host of .NET Rocks with our friend Carl Franklin.

Richard was in Australia recently for the NDC Sydney conference, and while he was here, he gave an awesome presentation at the Sydney .NET User Group on The History of .NET.

SSW TV makes heaps of great videos, but I was especially glad we were there to record this one. This is partly because I was on the ground for many of the meetings Richard mentions, but also because I’m a big believer that you can’t understand where you’re going unless you know where you’ve been. I think this presentation should be mandatory watching for all .NET developers.

After he presented at the NDC Sydney conference, Richard sat down with me to do a Ask Me Anything (AMA) session. Check out the video below to see us talk about everything from astrophysics to industry mentors, his thoughts on Satya Nadella, and which episode of .NET Rocks is his favourite.

I’m so glad Richard thought to turn his memories into a presentation that can be shared and enjoyed. It’s been an awesome 15 years with .NET. Do you think we’ll still be developing with .NET in another 15 years?