title: What's the early history of the .Net framework?
body: <p>What is the early development history of the .Net framework? (Before the release of .Net 1.0 in 2002)</p>
  
  <p>I've heard various stories about it, including that ASP.Net was originally written in Java, and that .Net was once called COM3, but certain versions of Windows thought that the project directory was a serial port.</p>
  
  <p>Does anyone have a more complete story?</p>