.NET development

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/get-started - literally titled "Get started with .NET".

What research have you done so far? What kind of advice do you actually need? Your post is very vague, even for this more discursive category of questions.

I'll make an attempt nonetheless:

.NET is heavily used in lots of organisations which either use a Microsoft-heavy stack in general, and/or value its object-oriented and enterprise focused nature. It's perhaps less of a hobby/amateur/small-org toolkit, but that's less true that it used to be, and certainly nothing should stop you using the free versions of the tools and having a go. If you're entirely new to coding you should make sure you learn the general concepts of object-oriented programming at the same time as you learn C# specifically, otherwise it may get a bit confusing at times. And definitely follow a full-on book or course...the free online stuff is great but it will only take you so far, especially if you've never done any programming before.

I hope that's useful, but as I said it wasn't entirely clear what kind of information you are after.

What is your goal?

• Become a proficiant software engineer (!= "code monkey")? -> I'd still suggest getting some sort of formal education.

• "Learn to code"? -> Find a problem, then find the best tool to solve it, then learn that tool, while learning how to solve the problem.

• "Learn dotnet"? (Whatever that actually means) -> Basically the same as above just that you already chose your tool. In that case, there are plenty of online resources, learning courses, youtube tutorials (which can be a trap, so tread carefully with those), ...

Which parts of the dotnet ecosystem you start with heavily depends on what type of problems you want to solve. But if you don't want to be completely overwhelmed at once, I'd say allow yourself to start with the basics and stick with them for a while.

Expect to get frustrated. Hitting walls is part of the process. Seeking help sometimes summons gate-keepers. Don't get lost. - Sometimes you'll find that for understanding A, you need to understand B and to understand B, you need to understand C and D ... and to understand D you need to understand D[sic!], first. Especially in the beginning, allow yourself to not have to understand everything and that it's ok to just follow a beaten path for a while until your knowledge grows and you are ready. Going down every rabbithole to its bottom will disrupt projects, otherwise. And that's really frustrating. With time you'll find a balance between "learning excursions" and "focus on the current task".

tl;dr: Don't worry about a "stack". Get an IDE and install the SDK. Then solve a trivial problem in a Console App. Then go from there.

Ok. If you have a reasonable amount of .NET experience already then why did you ask about "getting started with .NET"? A library management system with all those components is certainly not a trivial thing.

So your request is now something entirely different - it sounds like you want to want to know why .NET isn't popular amongst your particular student body.

I cannot speak for South Asia specifically (which is a huge region anyway, no doubt with many variations across it) but you should really look at industry trends rather than a handful of students. Stackoverflow and many others produce surveys showing what technologies their respondents are using (and many other interesting trends). https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/technology#most-popular-technologies for example shows you that C# is high up on the list of most-used languages. You can also look at job advert sites, and things like LinkedIn, to know what people are really using and interested in out there in the wider world.

It might be less popular amongst students for various reasons, some of which I alluded to already. As it's more enterprise-focused you might see it less in open-source/free projects and tutorials. It also for years was heavily associated with Windows and although it now runs on Linux etc as well there are other more well-established technologies on that platform. Again, such free/open-source platforms are often more popular with students etc for obvious (i.e. cost & freedom) reasons.

Things like JavaScript particularly may be more popular because it can run both in the browser and in the back-end/server-side, so it has potentially more utility. If you learn C#/ASP.NET to build web apps then chances are you'll need to know some JavaScript at some point as well.

In short, the opinions or personal preferences of some of the students at one particular institution are not indicative of a "problem" with a huge, well-supported ecosystem such as .NET. Whether it's a good choice for you in your chosen career path is another matter, of course.

There is nothing "wrong" with it. JavaScript is just a very popular and in the context of web dev widely used language. It is also popular among 'vibe coders' that heavily depend on AI for their workflow. It has a humongous ecosystem, tooling and it is quite easy to learn and I guess there still a relatively high amounts of jobs, especially entry-level, that require JS et al. It doesn't surprise me at all that it is popular among students (regardless of location). And also, it is the obvious choice if your peers and environment are knowledgeable in that language, that you choose to adopt it. You get free tutoring, naturally.

Having Web Dev as a goal, my first choice would not have been C#/.Net, I guess. But it's absolutely doable. And if you are the 'odd man out' in your peer group, then it adds to the challenge.

I also don't see why you couldn't dip your toes into both? A lot of patterns, concepts even syntax are pretty similar if not the same among many languages. Having a look at 2 langs also will open your view to what are common patterns that are language agnostic. And you will discover aspects that tell you when and why you would choose one over the other.

Now, already having some experience with C#, I'd really just go forward and try web dev with dotnet tooling. See how far you get. Even if you 'fail' you gain experience. You cannot lose. The worst thing you can do is: nothing.

BTW: I just so happened to stumble upon this: https://github.com/dotnet/intro-to-dotnet-web-dev

Thank you much sir, Appreciate your advice !

I don’t like introducing myself as a developer

That's fine, but pretending you have no experience at all just misleads us and you end up not getting the advice you wanted! So it doesn't help you either. To my mind though, you may have only made one big project but that still requires programming skill and knowledge - you're a developer by that standard.

And yes I would just start having a try with it, and see if you like it. Nothing stops from you also trying another stack at the same time, and see what you prefer. If you aren't looking for a job then it takes the pressure off getting it right.

I don’t like introducing myself as a developer because one project (a library management system) isn’t enough for me (That's why I mentioned getting started with, sorry about that :( ). I don’t think I really need to become a developer for a company or work as a freelancer. I forgot to mention this: my major is Computer Networking, and I love software development (including web development).

Also, I can’t explicitly mention the exact reason for what I am going to do with .NET. Probably, it might just be for building my own stuff. I think it is better to start learning it instead of overthinking which stack or technology to choose, isn’t it?

Why is .NET less popular? To find the answer to this question research Microsoft’s licensing agreements and also look at the cost of web hosting on a Microsoft server vs. a Linux server. Although, as someone else mentioned, within certain companies, Microsoft products are quite popular.

"web hosting on a Microsoft server vs. a Linux server" Is like comparing apples to oranges. Did you mean to compare the pricing of Windows servers vs. Linux servers? Modern .NET is able to be run across a range of different operating systems so the comparison is no longer as relevant as it used to be with the "old" .NET Framework which had a direct dependency on Windows.

Modern .NET is free and open-source with no licensing costs, and free development tools. And since you can now host on Linux too the barrier to entry is minimal.

I think your information / opinion is out of date. Of course there may be a mindset drag from those closed-source/Windows-only days which makes people assume - as you seem to have done - that the costs will be a barrier and this may reduce uptake. That's a shame because it's not really any different these days, cost-wise, than using Node etc.

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/platform/free

Thanks for commenting on this dear.

I have some sort of knowledge about computer programming, especially in C#. I developed a library management system using WinForms (through Visual Studio), ADO.NET, and Microsoft SQL Server (without AI). However, I don't have advanced C# knowledge or experience with concepts like delegates, cryptography, etc. I hope to learn advanced concepts in the future through my web development practice.

The problem is that almost every friend in my university follows JavaScript (on Node.js), Spring, and barely Laravel. I am the only student who is interested in .NET. Why is .NET less popular? Is something wrong with it (Have you noted any difference in south Asia when it comes to lack of .NET developers )?

My goal is to become a web developer to build my own projects, not to work as a software developer as a job (my major is Computer Networking), because I feel web development is very cool. I do programming, and I have some sort of knowledge regarding computer programming, especially in C#.

I have experience with inheritance, polymorphism, encapsulation, and interfaces in C# (I hope other OOP supported languages are similar). For sure, I will learn advanced concepts in C#, such as delegates, design patterns, and cryptography.The problem is that almost every friend in my university follows JavaScript (on Node.js), Spring, and barely Laravel. I am the only student who is interested in .NET. Why is .NET less popular? Is something wrong with it (Have you noted any difference in south Asia when it comes to lack of .NET developers )?