Do i need NET. Framework? What is it for??

Ati needs .net for its control center or control panel program but not for just drivers.
It wont hurt the computer at all. I have it installed on all the computers at work, home and friends and havent had one problem from.
This way if its needed i dont have to install it to continue what I need to due. I install it when I due reinstall of the os right off the bat. Real pain to have to do it over dial up.

Okay but which one should i install? Just 1.1?

1.1 is all that is really being used right now. 2.0 I think is still in beta.
I would hold off on 2.0 untill its out of beta or you find a program that needs it.

Okay, thanks for the help.

I'm pretty sure it's been out of beta for a while... it shows up on Windows update. But I don't think it's being used much... which is why you can have both installed.

yup .net is required for programs written in C# ( C sharp ), its cool, programs that use .net are far more stable then C++ just because of the language itself, im learning C# now  

.NET 2.0 was finalized back in November when Visual Studio 2005 was released. They two went hand in hand with each other. You can install both 1.1. and 2.0 on your computer with none to little problems. New applications being written now will most likely require 2.0, but older applications need 1.1. 2.0 is NOT backwards compatible with 1.1 (foolish mistake IMO of Microsoft, but on the other hand, backwards compatibility in Windows has caused huge problems as well  )

As for what .NET is, it's a framework/API to allow quick development of products with fewer errors. For example, ASP.NET provides constructs to do common things, such as a web-server reading a database and providing that data in a table on a webpage, with fwe lines of code (like 10 lines), rather than scripting it in ASP or PHP (which would take like 40 lines or so).

It's analegous to Java in that it's an engine that runs behind the scenes to provide functionality.

As for stability: C# can be just as buggy as C++, if just a mater of hte skill of the programmer. C# is far more inflexible than C++, and the compilier requires far more stringant code than C++. However, C++ has far more versitility to get it to do what you want, rather than having to live in C#/Java's stringant requirements. It's just means that it's easier to code something up that will compile, but not work.

I a lowley ho,e pc user and don't have a need for .NET Framework that I know of. Can I delete and also not download updates without affecting anything? samsmalley@bellsouth.net

From what little I too can find on this 'net framework' thing, my impression is that unless you run a server, website, some progs like visual studio, it seems like 'net framework' is basically useless, is an intense resource hog and otherwise pretty much more ms bloatware. On 'my' vista, I once uninstalled/disabled it (using 'turn windows features on & off') and the hp pavilion 'went berserk', began uninstalling most if not all net framework updates and prompted of installing some other updates (which freaked me out, so I hard booted, safe mode re-booted, etc., to stop all that because I've had bad experiences allowing 'let windows' and 'auto updating'). Since then I've read, "if" any of your installed progs do need net framework, they'll expectedly stop working in some aspect, maybe even prompt why, and any new progs (if needing 'net f') will prompt the user of the need to install 'net f'. So now with a modicum of info on this thing, I'm going to take the chance of 'turning off this windows feature' because most everywhere the basic reply of 'do I need net f', the response is that it's mostly for programmers.