What do I need for ASP.NET?

ASP.NET is part of the .NET Framework. To use ASP.NET you first have to (be able) to install it. This is possible on all Windows versions from Windows 98 and Windows NT 4, but ASP.NET only works on Windows 2000 and higher. Because of the changes in the architecture between Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000 the stability of ASP.NET can only be guaranteed on Windows 2000 ad higher. Since Microsoft only supports customers that run ASP.NET on Windows 2000 and higher.

ASP.NET ofcourse needs a webserver to work on. Standard this is Internet Information Server (or Personal Web Server) that's part of Windows. Exception is Windows XP Home Edition, IIS/PWS doesn't work on this.

At the moment the .NET Framework, and therefor ASP.NET is only available on Windows. There are however initiatives to run the .NET Framework on other platforms, like the Open Source Mono Project and an implementation for FreeBSD by Microsoft.

If you want to know more about how to install a webserver and ASP.NET, go to Installing ASP.NET .

How can I write ASP.NET pages?

ASP.NET pages are textfiles. So you can make them with Notepad. There are also programms that are usefull, like TextPad, UltraEdit and Homesite. Microsoft has got for developers Visual Studio.NET, but this could be overkill for some.