#1: Choice. I run a small business that writes apps for other small businesses. I used Java because it was easy to write the apps that I was asked and paid to write. When .NET was released, I found that it was easier to write the apps that my customers asked for, but I still had a large codebase that was Java based. What were my choices? I could continue to use Java, loosing some productivity (I found that Visual Studio was the best tool that I could find). I could convert my Java code to .NET using J#, or I could use the approach detailed here, to call .NET code from Java. I selected to use J# mainly because that was available much earlier than this article, and to slowly convert my code to C#.
SUN has some grand vision of making every Java app available for all platforms, and maybe that is a noble vision. But it does not offer me what I need. I need some of the services available in Windows that is not available in the “write once, run everywhere” plan that SUN has. .NET offers easy use of web services, something that Java does not.
SUN, AOL, Netscape, Real may be locked in some struggle to overthrow Microsoft by using the courts, claiming that they are a monopoly. But you know what? Microsoft makes the tools that I need to develop code that my customers need. When that puts food on the table for me and my children and puts a roof over our heads, I could not give a damn about SUN’s jealous ambitions.
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