Does a solution written for Microsoft .NET have to be 100% .NET? Scott Hanselman looks at how hybrid managed-unmanaged solutions are really the norm.

Read his article that exposes the myth of .NET Purity on MSDN

The Windows platform has dozens and dozens of high-level system services exposed by literally thousands of APIs. This large library of functionality encompasses various levels of richness. A low-level API may open a file off a disk, while a high-level one might play an audio file. The designers of the .NET Framework wanted to create a consistent object-oriented face on a rich legacy of platform functionality. The CLR and .NET Framework work together to expose the capabilities within the Windows platform, including those that may have previously been hidden away in difficult or little known APIs.