.NET 6 is Here! What Does it Mean for You and Loupe?

Monday, November 8th, 2021, .NET 6 was released! With that comes a lot of potential changes for you and your application.

The good news is, not everything is changing. The existing Loupe Agents for .NET Core work with .NET 6 applications. Our relevant agents actually target .NET Standard 2.0, which means they remain compatible with any version of .NET Core or even .NET Framework.

So if you’re looking to get started with a new application or migrate your existing application to .NET 6, rest easy. Loupe will continue to cover your logging needs.

What About .NET 5? .NET Framework?

You can still use Loupe with .NET 5 applications, but be aware that the end of .NET 5’s support period is coming in about six months, May 8th, 2022. So anyone currently using .NET 5 should make plans to upgrade to .NET 6 quickly. On the bright side, .NET 6 is a Long Term Support Release, so its support period lasts until November 8th, 2024. Once you get on .NET 6, you can stay for a while.

.NET Framework users can continue to use Loupe as well. .NET Framework is still in its support lifecycle, as it is considered a component of the Windows operating system. In this case, the most recent version of .NET Framework tied to a version of Windows is .NET Framework 4.8 on Windows 11. All this to say, .NET Framework 4.8 support should last for a long time.

If you want to take advantage of the new features on .NET 6 and migrate from .NET Framework, consider starting with the Loupe agents. You can move to the appropriate agents while still on .NET Framework, and remove a bit of additional work from the migration process ahead of time. You can learn more about the right agents to use in our “migrating references” documentation.

Any Plans for .NET 6 Specific Features?

For now, the Loupe agents offer the same feature-set/support they always have. As our users and ourselves begin to dig into the new .NET, we will be looking for ways to support the latest advancements provided by .NET 6.

Can You Show An Example of Loupe Working with .NET 6?

Of course! Yesterday I migrated my angular testing application from .NET 5 to .NET 6 following Microsoft’s directions, ran the application, and successfully uploaded the session to my Loupe Server repo:

I used the exact same agent and Loupe configuration I was before, but on .NET 6. In this case, the migration was basically effortless, but that won’t always be the case as .NET 6 has a few breaking changes for .NET 5 migrations. But even if you do run into issues, Loupe Agent compatibility shouldn’t be one of them.

How Do I Get Started with Loupe on .NET 6?

As long as you are using one of our .NET Core agents, Loupe is ready to go. If you haven’t used Loupe before though, you can test this out for yourself using either our free log viewer Loupe Desktop, or give Loupe Server a try (our centralized logging platform).

Additionally, if you want to add Loupe to a .NET 6 application using the new minimal hosting model, this article has a code sample showing how.