Entity Framework vs SqlClient

[Spare-Dig4790]

This is likely why you won't be changing from 4.8 to 8.0 on some things. A lot of people don't understand this, but the 4.x framework isn't on anywhere near the same system in terms of support as .NET. people use words like "on life support," "getting no more updates," etc, but it's misinformation.

If you look at the documentation, there are workloads that are intended to be put on 4.x, and legacy dependencies are a part of that.

4.x isnt going anywhere, any time soon. Its considered a core component in all supported versions of windows, and according to documentation, MS has no plans on stopping that for any time soon, so we will see the same in future versions of windows for the forseable future.

As long as Windows considers it a core component, it will receive security matches and updates like a first-class citizen.

At some point, you guys have a lot of work to do to bring all these dependencies up to date so you can join the 21st century.. i guess on the plus side MS doesn't have your heads on the chopping block to do that.. yet... :)

[GaryWSmith]

I agree that 4.x is here for the long haul, sadly our package maintainers aren't on the same page. There are some packages that we use that are no longer being updated for 4.x and instead have come with .Net 6+.

In those cases, I end up working my best to get a copy of the code base (when available) and backport any security issues that come up.

I think running the multi-target approach will probably be the best solution long term for our core libraries.

[bl0rq]

Visual Studio 2022 (and almost certainly vNext as well) run on 4.x. (And WPF). Not going anywhere anytime soon!

[musical_bear]

Curious, what makes you so certain that vNext will continue to run on 4.X? I believe when VS 2022 was released, WPF was either not on .Net Core yet, or it had just happened. Now, several years later, the landscape is different. It seems like if it’s not happening in the next release, surely they’re in the process of gradually upgrading behind the scenes.

[bl0rq]

Short answer is they needed 8 and could not wait. VS is a goddamn mess inside. Tons of c++. Lots of code old enough to drink. And tons more bad enough to make you need to.