.Net Penetration

[eltavo]

So I’ve been programming as a hobby for the last 6-7 years. I first started with c, asp, php and then got a hold of Visual Basic 6 for some quick apps. Now I´m trying to migrate to .Net

Differences aside, what most shock me was the amount of people that don´t have .net framework installed.

This arised my concerns whether to go forward with the development of .net. I realize that this issue is very relative and depends a lot to the end users you are aiming at.

Are there any statistics in this subject?

ps:
some points I´ve considered:
-the size of the .net framework instalation package (big) in order to include it in my projects
-Most user have no clue what .net means or do, making the matter even worse

 

[JuggaloBrotha]

It's only questionable for WinXP users as Vista ships with 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0 by default and I believe Win7 ships with those plus 3.5 (I think the rtm will have 4.0, but I don't know)

However, MS did finally 8 months ago put the .Net frameworks in the critical updates category so most XP users will have all of them installed anyways.

However, when deploying your app on physical media you should be sure the installer knows to install the Framework(s) from the same location as the installer and you'll need to make sure to put the Framework installer in the same dir as your app's installer, otherwise you should leave your installer defaulted to download the framework(s) from MS's website automatically during installation.