What is the deployment rate of the .NET framework?

Question

I've been looking for this information for my commercial desktop product, with no avail.

Specifically, what I'm look for, is deployment statistics of the .NET framework for end-users (both granny "I'm just browsing the internet" XP, and high-end users, if possible), and in the commercial/business sector.

Edit: Other than the data points below, here's an interesting blog post about .NET deployment rates.

Answer 1

Some statistics from 2005 I found at Scott Wiltamuth's blog (you can be sure these numbers are much higher now):

• More than 120M copies of the .NET Framework have been downloaded and installed using either Microsoft downloads or Windows Update
• More than 85% of new consumer PCs sold in 2004 had the .NET Framework installed
• More than 58% of business PCs have the .NET Framework preinstalled or preloaded
• Every new HP consumer imaging device (printer/scanner/camera) will install the .NET Framework if it’s not already there – that’s 3M units per year
• Every new Microsoft IntelliPoint mouse software CD ships with the .NET Framework

It is also worth pointing out that Vista and Windows Server 2008 both ship with the .NET Framework. XP gets it via Windows Update.

Answer 2

It depends a lot on which version of the framework you are targeting. I believe 1.1 (and even 2.0) are widely deployed. The later versions are not.

You should also visit this site for some very good information on .Net Framework Deployment: http://www.hanselman.com/smallestdotnet/

Answer 3

I don't have any hard numbers, but these days, it is pretty safe to assume most Windows XP and Vista users have at least .NET 2.0. I believe this was actually dropped via Windows Update for XP, and Vista came with at least 2.0 (apparently with 3.0 as pointed out in the comments to this answer).

Answer 4

I needed that same kind of information at my last job, where I was attempting to convince my manager to allow .NET development. The customer base was primarily dial-up users, so requiring a 20+ MB download was a tough sell. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any sort of statistics, either from Microsoft or from a research firm.

What I was able to get, however, was web analytics from the company's home page. .NET inserts its version number into the User Agent field, which I was able to log using our analytics package. From there, some Excel gruntwork was able to give me a rough idea of how many customers already had .NET installed, and which version(s).

Unfortunately that won't help you answer the broader question of deployment rates across multiple demographics, but it might be a useful technique for a single customer base.