[dotnet] Blog post about strong naming

Author: nvborisenko

website_and_docs/content/blog/2026/dotnet-strong-name-signing.md

@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+---
+title: ".NET Assemblies Are Now Strongly Signed"
+linkTitle: ".NET Assemblies Are Now Strongly Signed"
+date: 2026-04-27
+tags: ["selenium", "dotnet"]
+categories: ["general"]
+author: Nikolay Borisenko [@nvborisenko](https://github.com/nvborisenko)
+description: >
+  Starting with Selenium 4.44, the main NuGet packages ship strongly signed assemblies. The separate StrongNamed packages are retired.
+---
+
+Starting with **Selenium 4.44**, the `Selenium.WebDriver` and `Selenium.Support` NuGet packages
+ship **strongly signed assemblies**. The separate `Selenium.WebDriver.StrongNamed` and
+`Selenium.Support.StrongNamed` packages are discontinued.
+
+## Why This Matters
+
+Without strong naming on the official packages, any project that itself needed to be strongly signed
+could not reference Selenium from NuGet. Teams were forced to either forgo strong naming, bundle
+out-of-band downloads, or use the separate `StrongNamed` packages with a different assembly name —
+all of which caused friction, especially in enterprise environments.
+
+## What Changed
+
+- `Selenium.WebDriver` and `Selenium.Support` are signed with the project's `Selenium.snk` key.
+  Assembly names (`WebDriver` / `WebDriver.Support`) are **unchanged**.
+- `AssemblyVersion` stays at `4.0.0.0` (major-only) — no binding redirects needed between `4.x` releases.
+- `Selenium.WebDriver.StrongNamed` and `Selenium.Support.StrongNamed` are **retired**.
+
+## Breaking Changes
+
+If you reference the `StrongNamed` packages, migrate as follows:
+
+1. Replace `Selenium.WebDriver.StrongNamed` → `Selenium.WebDriver`
+2. Replace `Selenium.Support.StrongNamed` → `Selenium.Support`
+3. Update assembly references from `WebDriver.StrongNamed` → `WebDriver`
+
+If you use the regular packages — nothing changes.
+
+## Related Issues
+
+- [#12315](https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/issues/12315) — Publish StrongNamed builds to NuGet feed
+- [#10845](https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/issues/10845) — Revisiting strong-named assemblies for NuGet
+- [#14115](https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/issues/14115) — Strong Name Key
+
+Implementation: [#17397](https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/pull/17397)