Three years ago, Monster.com reported 300 job postings for the title ".NET Developer." Today, the ubiquitous job site boasts more than 10,000 openings for the same position. So when Microsoft unveiled .NET Framework 1.0 and Visual Studio .NET at VSLive! San Francisco 2002, it set off an industry trend that has gained momentum ever since and has no end in sight.

That was the focus Monday of S. "Soma" Somasegar's keynote address to kick off VSLive! San Francisco 2005: In three short years, Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework have set a development standard rooted in the notion of building integrated systems to create a first-rate user experience. A recent 2004 study conducted by Microsoft and Forrester indicates that preference for .NET development is only getting stronger. According to the study, 56 percent of developers planned to use .NET to perform a majority of their development work, compared to 44 percent for J2EE. In addition, Somasegar noted several corporations—New Atlanta, Baylor Health Care System, and 3M—that have migrated to .NET from other technologies.