.NET 8: A Strong Release with Long-Term Support
Microsoft's latest long-term support (LTS) release, .NET 8, offers significant improvements in performance, productivity, and cloud-native development. At BUZ Yazılım, we have been using .NET technology in our projects since 2007 and are directly experiencing the advantages of migrating to .NET 8.
Performance Improvements
.NET 8 delivers significant performance gains compared to its predecessor .NET 7.
JIT Compiler Enhancements
- Dynamic PGO (Profile-Guided Optimization) enabled by default
- Up to 20% improvement in Tier 1 JIT compilation
- On-stack replacement (OSR) for optimizing running code
- Loop and branch prediction improvements
Memory Management
- Lower latency with Garbage Collector (GC) improvements
- LOH (Large Object Heap) fragmentation reduction
- 15-20% decrease in memory allocation time
- Improvements in Server GC mode
HTTP Performance
- Throughput increase in the Kestrel web server
- Maturation of HTTP/3 and QUIC protocol support
- Connection pool optimizations
- Reduced TLS handshake time
Minimal API Innovations
Minimal APIs became even more powerful in .NET 8.
New Features
- Form binding: Binding form data directly to endpoint parameters
- Route groups: Grouping related endpoints with shared configuration
- Keyed services: Key-based service resolution
- Short-circuit routing: Direct response by bypassing middleware
var app = WebApplication.Create();
var group = app.MapGroup("/api/products")
.RequireAuthorization()
.WithTags("Products");
group.MapGet("/", () => Results.Ok(products));
group.MapPost("/", (Product p) => Results.Created($"/api/products/{p.Id}", p));
Native AOT (Ahead-of-Time) Compilation
Native AOT support expanded to ASP.NET Core in .NET 8.
AOT Advantages
- Instant startup: Start running within milliseconds without JIT compilation
- Low memory usage: Reduction of runtime components
- Small deployment size: Removal of unnecessary code (tree shaking)
- Container compatibility: Fast scaling with smaller container images
AOT Limitations
- Limited reflection usage
- Dynamic code generation not supported
- Not all NuGet packages are AOT-compatible
- Entity Framework Core doesn't offer full support yet
Blazor Unified Model
.NET 8 introduces a unified render model for Blazor.
- Server-side rendering (SSR): Server-side rendering for initial load
- Streaming rendering: Progressive page loading
- Interactive Server: SignalR-based interactive mode
- Interactive WebAssembly: Client-side execution
- Auto mode: Start with server, transition to WebAssembly
C# 12 New Features
C# 12, which comes with .NET 8, also introduces new features:
- Primary constructors: Primary constructor methods for classes
- Collection expressions: Collection creation with
[1, 2, 3]syntax - Default lambda parameters: Default parameters in lambda expressions
- Alias any type: Aliases for any type using
using
// Primary constructor
public class ProductService(IRepository<Product> repository, ILogger logger)
{
public async Task<Product?> GetById(int id)
{
logger.LogInformation("Getting product {Id}", id);
return await repository.FindAsync(id);
}
}
.NET Aspire
.NET Aspire, introduced with .NET 8, is a framework that simplifies cloud-native application development.
- Service discovery: Automatic connection between microservices
- Telemetry: Built-in tracing, metrics, and logging
- Health checks: Service status monitoring
- Dashboard: Visual monitoring panel in the development environment
BUZ Yazılım's .NET 8 Experience
We actively use .NET technology in projects for over 100 clients. Results we achieved with the .NET 8 migration:
- 25% improvement in page load times
- 15% reduction in server memory usage
- 30% development speed increase with minimal API
Conclusion
.NET 8 is a release offering powerful improvements in performance, productivity, and modern application development. At BUZ Yazılım, we leverage all the advantages of .NET 8 in our projects.
Contact us to develop your project with .NET 8 or update your existing project.