.NET 8 has been released: Summary of new features

.NET 8, has landed, bringing with it a grand suite of enhancements and all-new features. Taking one more step towards making development more agile, Microsoft brings a horde of features targeted to drive better performance, scalability and productivity.

Let’s address the key takeaways from .NET 8, confirmed on the first day of .NET conf 2023.

Major Performance Improvements

.NET 8 promises to deliver unparalleled performance upgrades with the implementation of a new code generator Dynamic Profile-Guided Optimization (PGO). This key enhancement is turning heads with its ability to potentially increase your apps’ performance by up to 20%.

Cloud-native Application Development with .NET Aspire

Creating observable and production-ready cloud-native apps is easier with .NET Aspire. This predefined stack arms developers with a simple and intuitive local developer experience, helping you configure and manage your cloud-native applications efficiently from the get-go.

Pushing Containerization Forward with .NET 8

With the most recent upgrade, it’s now easier and safer to bundle your applications with containers. The .NET images are equipped with a non-root user, thus improving the security feature. Plus, containerized apps can be deployed faster due to smaller .NET base images.

Advance to Native AOT

This enhancement allows you to transform your .NET applications into base code, reducing their memory consumption and enabling immediate launch. This results in an environment where JIT compilers are not necessary, leading to more efficient resource usage.

Embrace Artificial Intelligence

The .NET 8 platform allows for effortless utilization of AI through its smooth incorporation of AI-empowered plugins and tools. Improvements have also been made to the System. Numerics library and collaborations with partners like Azure OpenAI and Microsoft Teams have made it simpler to infuse AI into your apps.

Enhanced Blazor & .NET MAUI

Blazor in .NET 8 permits programmers to cater to all requisite web interface needs, improving scalability and enhancing the user experience. Conversely, .NET MAUI offers a common code repository to develop applications for a variety of platforms, aiming at the most recent versions of iOS and Android.

C# 12 Features

C# 12 brings in a host of exciting language enhancements. The most recent upgrade now allows you to establish primary constructors in any class and struct using a straightforward and sophisticated syntax. Array creation has also been made easier, taking the conciseness of code to another level.

Visual Studio Support

Parallel to .NET 8, we have the Visual Studio 2022 17.8 release that supports .NET 8 and C# 12’s language enhancements. You can also start swiftly with .NET 8 via GitHub Codespaces template for .NET, providing you with the .NET SDK and necessary configurations.

These exciting features announced in the release of .NET 8 ensure that working on the development platform is even more efficient and powerful.Microsoft has surely packed .NET 8 with a wealth of features and enhancements.