Java is Becoming Outdated
A recent InfoWorld article, by Bill Snyder, points out that Java is quickly becoming outdated, so much so that it calls Java the new Cobol. It goes on to point out several times that .NET is quickly replacing Java as the platform of choice.
I am not going to say I really know too much about what developing in JAVA is like. Honestly the last time I did any Java programming was in grad school and then it was only as an exercise to see what it was. I remember my young programming mind thought it was awfully complicated to do some basic things. Today my impressions of the JAVA experience is one of pain when compared to the nice life I enjoy with .NET. Again I have not touched JAVA in a long time, but let's face it Visual Studio (2005 or 2008) is generally far superior than anything available in the Java world. I am aware of Eclipse, but I am under the impression the licensing model is very prohibitive for mortal shops to fund.
The article mentions several times that .NET is really pushing JAVA out. It also mentions dynamic languages like Ruby are also replacing it as well. I like this excerpt because it sort of buttresses my point above:
These weaknesses are having a real effect. Late last month, Info-Tech Research Group said its survey of 1,850 businesses found .Net the choice over Java among businesses of all sizes and industries, thanks to its promotion via Visual Studio and SharePoint. Microsoft is driving uptake of the .Net platform at the expense of Java," says George Goodall, a senior research analyst at Info-Tech.
I also like the two articles referenced by Snyder that also show how .NET taking the top position. One article is an interesting study done by publisher O'Reilly on what technology books are selling, and another summarizing the findings of an enterprise technology survey.
Obviously this bodes well for me and my peers in the .NET space. I think Microsoft has benefited from those who went before them. But this would have been the case for any language or platform released in the last 15 years too. If you got a chance to listen to the worst Hanselminutes to date, they spend a fair amount of time talking about the platform to develop Macintosh applications. Again I have no experience there, but the overall conclusion, at least to me, was that platform does not get it either.
I know for a fact that there will be many more new programming languages and platforms in the near and distant future. What I am starting to see as a trend is many of them are built around the .NET platform. Just take a look at the .NET Rocks archives to see what fringe technologies and languages are emerging around .NET. What do we have now over 50 languages and compilers now? I honestly do not know or really care. I think where JAVA got it wrong by trying to target multiple Operating Systems, Microsoft got it right by targeting multiple languages with a strong framework.
Viva La .NET!!