.Net Framework 3.0 is planned for inclusion in Windows Vista, due out in early 2007. The framework features the Windows Communication Foundation Web services platform; the Windows Presentation Foundation presentation layer technology; Windows Workflow, for workflow; and the newly renamed Windows CardSpace, for identity management. CardSpace had been code-named InfoCard. Current .Net Framework 2.0 technologies, such as the CLR (Common Language Runtime), also are part of .Net Framework 3.0

"The .Net Framework has always been at the core of WinFX, but the WinFX brand didn't convey this," said S. "Soma" Somasegar, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Developer Division, in his blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/default.aspx).

"The WinFX brand helped us introduce the incredible innovations," for workflow, Web services, and other new technologies, Somasegar said. However, the WinFX brand "also created an unnatural discontinuity between previous versions of our framework and the current version."

"With this in mind we have decided to rename WinFX to the .Net Framework 3.0. .Net Framework 3.0 aptly identifies the technology for exactly what it is -- the next version of our developer framework," Somasegar said.

"The change is in name only and will not affect the technologies being delivered as part of the product," Somasegar said.