Do I have to pay a fee to develop or deploy a .NET application?

Question

I have heard that .NET is not free and that I have to pay Microsoft if I develop a .NET application. Is this true? If so:

1. What do I have to pay?

Answer 1

To build apps with Microsoft .NET, you have to license Windows, which is not free, though it is often built-in to the cost of the PC, and often it is a cost you have already paid!

To run apps with Microsoft .NET, again, you must have a license for Windows.

There is no cost to use the .NET SDK to build an app. There is no cost to deploy an app that uses .NET. There are free tools you can use to build apps. VS Express, emacs, Reflector, SharpDevelop, etc etc. There are also premium for-fee tools. Visual Studio can get very expensive in the Pro versions.

Mono is a version of .NET that runs on Windows and non-Windows platforms.