apardoe

Native image generation differs based on the platform. There is automatic native image generation in Windows: see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh691758.aspx for details. There's also Triton on Windows Phone: http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2012/3-005.

In the classic Windows Desktop case, however, you're right: you need to NGen your code yourself or call NGen as a custom action from your installer. --Andrew Pardoe [MSFT]

Mea culpa :) --Andrew Pardoe [MSFT]

Don't read too much into the specific example of "web apps". The point here is that the classic server app of 10 years ago was often a long-running service that processed large batches of work.

Think, for example, about gene sequencing: JIT compile the app once, chew on data for hours. No one cares too much about the startup time because the app will be running far long enough to amortize the cost of a thoroughly optimizing compilation.

The classic server app of today is often a web app that doesn't do a ton of work relative to its startup time. Web apps often start up, do a bit of work, then shut down. Waiting a long time for the JIT compiler degrades each launch significantly.

As others point out, there are solutions to making web apps faster. But rest assured: RyuJIT helps all kinds of apps: server, client, web, computational.

--Andrew Pardoe [MSFT]