BleepingComputer.com: Do I Need Microsoft .net Framework?

Okay, I'm a newbie here but not to computing and I'm getting more and more knowledgeable all the time. But I do run into problems that I sometimes have difficulty finding the answers for. The newest is whether or not I NEED Microsoft's .NET Framework and ASP.Net. I have been having some minor problems with slowdowns, runtime errors, etc. and in exploring I got to wondering if these are necessary. I think I downloaded .net and java both not too long after I bought the computer about a year ago but for the life of me I can't remember why. My OS is Win XP SP2.

I don't do any web developing but I do a lot of surfing, use IE7, Firefox 2.0 (primary), also do some P2P/torrent stuff. I have the latest Java installed but I can't even figure out if I need that. This is my first home computer and I really, really don't want to screw it up, but I don't want to have a bunch of stuff on it that is not needed either.

I would appreciate any help I can get as I am just getting more and more confused by the articles I found.

SIGH! Sooooo much to learn!

IMO ...unless you have an app or game which requires MS .NET installed, I have no idea why you would install it.

Louis

I wasn't a big fan of net framework 1 when it came out, it seemed poorly written, recently I have had to install net 2 for a lot of apps, after updating it for all the security holes it seems to be behaving itself very well

I am passing on net 3 with windows xp sp2, like media player 11 it seems to do well with vista but not xp?

Thanks for the comments. I was wondering wehter i needed it, too. But what is it, anyway?