Just over two years ago, .NET Core (or as it was known just before then dnx) was brand new. It's been two years, and a whole slew of versions have flown by. The current LTS version (as I type this) is 2.1.6.
Oh, and did I say that the entire thing is open source? That's right, Microsoft's flagship application SDK and runtime are both open source and cross platform.
Say what?!
But for folks who have no clue what .NET Core is but want to learn it, where can you turn to?
psst: to jump directly to the list, click here
An Intro of Sorts
As a quick aside, I've been writing and podcasting about .NET Core (and all of the other things related to .NET Core) for about 2 years.
I've only been podcasting about .NET Core for a few months, though
As such, I'm sometimes asked my opinion on how folks can go about learning all about .NET Core. Such as when my good friend Matthew asked me on Twitter:
Ok, so the first thing that I did was launch into a little self promotion. But that's allowed, right?
Anyway, the resulting tweets got me thinking about how I could share my top .NET Core resources for folks who want to learn all about it. So...
The List
In no particular order:
Microsoft have a wonderful resource called the Microsoft Virtual Academy. This is a free resource of exercise lead tutorial videos, presented by Microsoft engineers which are designed to get you up to speed with all of Microsoft's technologies.
I would start with the Beginner course, even if .NET is old hat to you because there are a number of changes and gotchas that almost anyone can fall into.
This is a free eBook from Manning Publishing which consists of a number of hand picked chapters from other eBooks. Dustin Metzgar is the author (curator?) of this free eBook, and it covers everything from .NET Core itself to ASP.NET Core, EF Core and a little on Micro-services.
as a side note: Dustin is a fantastic person and was on an early episode of my podcast - oops, I said that I wouldn't self promote
This is a blog written by Andrew Lock. Andrew is a lot of things, and curious is one of them. His blog posts (along with those by Steve Gordon) are some of the best deep dives I've ever read.
He's also written a book on ASP.NET Core called ASP.NET Core in Action
psst: connect with me on twitter, and I can get you a discount code this one
Both his blog and book should be on anyone's reading list, due to the sheer amount of useful information contained within them.
I can't talk about .NET Core resources without talking about Scott. He's one of the community outreach, program manager, developer types at Microsoft and his blog posts are amazing.
Did I also mention that he works on the .NET team? Talk about insider information!
Steve Smith is another person on this list who I've had the pleasure of interviewing for my podcast
I promised that I'd shut up about that, right?
and his blog (along with his podcast) is full of developer tips and useful insights. You can tell that Steve is a .NET Core developer, but his tips are technology agnostic.
Just a Few
These are just a few of my top .NET Core resources. I could literally go on for pages and pages, but I wont.
I've left out things like PluralSight courses, conference talks, and podcasts. I could totally write another post just on those topics.
although, my podcast is the only one specifically about .NET Core. Most of the others are related to .NET as a whole
What I'm most interested in, is what are your top .NET Core resources? Are they blogs, books, videos, courses, or podcasts? Let's share these resources and give everyone a chance to enjoy .NET Core.
As Scott Hanselman says (in the foreword of Dustin's book ".NET Core in Action"):
This isn't my .NET Core, it's everyone's .NET Core.
So, in the words of the giant heads in Rick and Morty:
Show me what you got!
Top comments (3)
Nice! Do you have any recommendations for resources that are specifically tailored for those in a non-Windows setup? Majority of content in MVA and Pluralsight appears to be focused on Windows and Visual Studio (which is understandable, really).
I would start with ASP.NET Core in Action (let me know if you'd like 40% off, I have a coupon code). The entire book is operating system agnostic. Sure, there are parts which go into Visual Studio specific things, but the majority of it is OS agnostic (the first chapter is along the lines of "if you are running Ubuntu...; whereas if you are running MacOS").
It's a little self-promotiony, but all of my articles on .NET Core where written using a combination of MacOS and Ubuntu 16.04/18.04 and VS Code.
I’m a big fan of Jimmy Bogard.