WinFX: An All-Managed API [Nov. 24, 2003]

"In Longhorn, Win32 will no longer be the principal API. It will, of course, continue to be supported; 20-year-old DOS applications still run on the latest version of Windows, and likewise, Win32 applications will also continue to work for the foreseeable future. But just as DOS and 16-bit Windows applications were superseded by Win32 applications, so in Longhorn will Win32 become the 'old way' of doing things. In Win32's place is a new API called WinFX (pronounced 'Win Effects'). WinFX is a significant milestone in the history of the Windows API, as it puts .NET at the center of the platform. While Win32, the main API for previous versions of Windows, is a C-style API, WinFX is designed primarily to be used by .NET languages. In other words, it is a managed API. Moreover, it is a superset of the existing .NET Framework."

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