GADS OS is a desktop application.  Ever wonder why?  Are we the only ones who have desktop applications?

Millions of developers develop and maintain Windows Forms (desktop) applications. According to Microsoft, over two million developers actively work on Windows Forms applications every month, and we're some of them.

The fact is, some applications still can’t be done well in a browser. In fact, we have a whole team at the GADS Open Source Project that specializes in high-performance desktop work and does quite well because they can do some amazing things that can’t be achieved with other technologies. We’ve been taking advantage of the Windows built-in .NET Framework to write libraries for our GADS OS desktop apps for a while now, and the apps themselves have required the full framework, installers, and everything that goes with fat client, native desktop applications.

The problem is that Web apps are browser-based, not browser agnostic.  A browser-agnostic Web application should work on Edge, Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera or any other browser equally well, but that's not always the case or possible.  All the features and capabilities that make today's browsers so powerful and complex also cause some problems for users.

Issues such as plug-ins, security settings and version requirements mean that managing browsers can be a lot of work. With large enterprise line-of-business applications like GADS data reporting and analysis, the problem of browser compatibility compounds.

All good things must come to an end, even Windows 7. After January 14, 2020, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates or support for PCs running Windows 7. But you can keep the good times rolling by moving to Windows 10.

The GADS OS software versions prior to 2019 required .NET Framework 4.5.2 or higher. The release of .NET Framework 4.5.2 was announced on 5 May 2014.

Beginning with versions 19.x.x.x, the GADS OS software will require .NET Framework 4.6.1 or higher.  The release of .NET Framework 4.6.1 was announced on 30 November 2015. This version requires Windows 7 SP1 or later.

Microsoft issued a reminder to organizations that it will be ending product support next month for .NET Framework versions 4, 4.5 and 4.5.1.

Starting on Jan. 12, 2016, those versions of the product will become unsupported software. As a consequence, they won't get future updates from Microsoft, including security patches. The lack of patch support could pose risks for organizations continuing to run the software.

The January deadline maybe will come as a surprise for some organizations because Microsoft accelerated its traditional product support deadlines for those .NET Framework versions. Previously, the .NET Framework product lifecycles had been associated with underlying Windows product lifecycles. Instead, Microsoft switched to a more arbitrary January deadline for versions 4, 4.5 and 4.5.1. The policy change was announced in August of last year.

Microsoft made the change in order to "invest more resources towards improvements of the .NET Framework," per its announcement.

Microsoft is claiming that organizations can simply install .NET 4.5.2 or higher versions and most things will work. The most recent version of the product is .NET Framework 4.6.1.

The newer versions of the .NET Framework will install as "in-place" upgrades, which means that older versions don't have to be uninstalled first. The .NET Framework versions from 4.5.2 and newer will support applications that used the older .NET Framework versions in most cases, Microsoft has indicated. However, it's still up to organizations to test their applications first and see if they'll be compatible.

Microsoft's announcement explained that .NET Framework 4.5.2 and higher versions have a so-called "quirking" feature. This quirking feature "maintains the semantics of earlier versions" of the .NET Framework, assuring compatibility.

Microsoft is also claiming that developers likely won't have to recompile or rebuild their applications after upgrading the .NET Framework -- at least when using .NET Framework versions 4.5.2, 4.6 and 4.6.1.

One exception to this accelerated product lifecycle pertains to .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1. Its lifecycle is still based on the product lifecycle of the underlying Windows version used, according to this Microsoft FAQ. Depending on the Windows version used, it'll still be supported after the January deadline.

The Jan. 12, 2016 deadline for .NET 4, 4.5 and 4.5.1 coincidentally is also the same accelerated product support deadline for organizations to move to the latest version of Internet Explorer. For most organizations, this policy change means that they must have migrated to using IE 11 by that Jan. 12 date or they'll lose IE product support. However, the policy just states that organizations need to use the latest version of IE per supported Windows version, so it's a little nuanced. For example, Vista users can still continue to use IE 9 and have a supported browser since IE 9 is the most current browser for that Windows operating system.