Microsoft adopts jQuery – .NET is getting cool!!!

This is GREAT news! I haven’t been a big fan of using the ASP.NET AJAX framework (especially for public-facing sites) because of its clunky footprint. I have always been a jQuery fan! Instead of reinventing the wheel, Microsoft has decided to embrace (with wide open arms) the open-source JavaScript library, jQuery (which keeps their latest releases on Google Code). I think it is interesting that Microsoft plans on supporting and bundling Visual Studio with jQuery, which is already widely used by some of the big boys on the web – Google, WordPress, Dell, Digg, Amazon, Mozilla, etc.

If your development team is struggling to pick one of the many well-liked JavaScript libraries (like Prototype, Mootools, YUI, script.acul.ous, Ext JS, Dojo and more) as a standard AJAX framework for your enterprise projects, this is the best validation you can get. Go jQuery (light-weight footprint, cross browser support, tons of plug-ins and community support)!

In the wake of the “free economy”, it is nice to see that Microsoft is slowly shifting towards integration with open-source solutions in their closed-source model. It seems like a desperate move, but “better late than never.” I am particularly fascinated by the nice clean SEO-friendly HTML and URLs that the new ASP.NET MVC framework spits out. Watch out JAVA and LAMP developers, .NET is really getting cool now!

If you are contemplating building a high-traffic public-facing site with ASP.NET, I will recommend picking “ASP.NET MVC with jQuery” in lieu of “ASP.NET WebForms with the ASP.NET AJAX” framework – for the sake of performance.  In fact, I am convinced that Scott Gu and his folks are really committed to changing the negative connotations associated with ASP.NET. The future is bright! It is really bright!

So we have performance well covered (almost), but I know your next question is security — my subsequent blog post will debunk some of the popular reasons why a lot of the enterprise-level developers and architects are still “shy” of AJAX.

Further reading: