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Tony Byrne

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Pondering the future of .NET 2.0 solutions like DNN and Telligent

2-Jan-2009

Tags: Enterprise Collaboration & Social Software, Evaluating SharePoint, Industry Standards, Marketplace at Large, Open Source, Selecting Technology, DotNetNuke, SharePoint 2010

Recently I've been thinking about two packages we cover -- DotNetNuke (DNN) in The Web CMS Report, and Telligent Community Server in the Enterprise Social Software Report -- in the wake of the rise of SharePoint.

Leaders of both platforms go to great pains to point out that they don't compete head-to-head with SharePoint. There's some truth to that. DNN and Community Server are fundamentally pre-MOSS efforts, developed at a time when Redmond was not putting much attention to developing packaged applications off its once cutting-edge .NET 2.0 platform. These were tools where developers could go to town with the latest frameworks and approaches. In the case of Telligent, many of those developers reside at Microsoft itself, which continues to use Community Server for some public forums (e.g., www.asp.net) and blogs, especially in the Windows and Office Communications Server groups.

But SharePoint 2007 has of course really surged. As we point out in the SharePoint Report 2009, one of the more notable (if not frequently noted) dimensions of MOSS is that it represents a .NET 3.0 development platform, taking advantage of newer .NET services such as master pages and the Windows Workflow Foundation, among others.

Now you get the sense that developers in the DNN and Community Server communities are feeling a bit left behind. Still, .NET 2.0 remains a kind of refuge for those module developers who don't want to learn 3.0 or are suspicious of some of its constructs (in particular master pages for templating or skinning).

As a customer, you don't need to be a snob about this. DNN and Community Server should not be immediately dinged for lacking .NET 3.0-based services. And I think Redmond was wise in its approach to .NET where the later versions are functionally additive (rather than reconstructive). That said, I can't help but wonder about the future of both products. Migrating them to .NET 3.x won't be simple, which means potential turbulence for you the customer.

[Update: 04 January 2008 -- several kind people have corrected me with respect to master pages, that they actually started with .NET 2.0. However, the point still stands that they are new to MOSS, and not used at all in Community Server or DNN.]