The .NET Framework v3.5 complete package can be downloaded from Microsoft's web site, but it comes at a hefty price - 197MB. Within those 197MB, there's a version of the framework for x64, x86, a myriad of system patches that are required by the framework, etc. The bad news is if software developers decide to redistribute the whole framework, they're tacking almost 200MB onto their customer downloads. The good news is that it's probably completely unnecessary to do so.
In a spirited discussion on the Business of Software forum, the .NET Framework came under fire for being unreasonably large to download at almost 200mb. I agree with that argument that if (and only if) your customers have to download the entire package.
As luck would have it, I had an old Windows 2003 (Service Pack 2, with only .NET 1.0 & 1.1) development virtual machine laying around. As proof of not having any of the .NET 2.0+ bits, here's a screenshot of the %WINNT%\Microsoft.NET\Framework folder:
I installed a trial-ware bandwidth monitoring tool called Bandwidth Monitor Pro to ensure that the Microsoft bootstrap installer (2.7MB) wasn't lying about the size of the bits it would download. Here's what the .NET 3.5 Installer had to say about the download:
63MB - Not thrilling, but but nice ( better than 200mb!)
The final verdict? From Googling ".NET Framework 3.5", downloading the 2.7MB installer and it pulling down all the bits it required is a total of 66.64MB downloaded as shown below:
Yes, 66MB is a relatively large download, but it's not the 200mb people are whining about. If I find the time, and there's some interest - I may do this test with a Vista virtual machine as well.
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