The DotGNU project exists to build a FreeSoftware WebServices platform that can serve as a complete replacement for Microsoft's .NET - DotGNU strives to provide good support for Java as well as getting close to upwards compatibility from .NET - so that migrating from .NET to DotGNU will be easy. On the compilers side, a key innovation is Treecc, a tool which provides an aspect-oriented approach to building compilers.

For news and official information please refer to the DotGNU Website Unofficially, "DotGNU" stands for "DotGNU over the GNU Networking Universe". This is a recursive acronym, just like "GNU" stands for "GNU's Not Unix". In any case, DotGNU is not .NET.