the case against .NET

Tim Anderson has been blogging from Tech.Ed. In a useful post about convergence between Silverlight and WPF, he makes the comment
in many ways Silverlight is .NET done right, from a client perspective; it delivers just what is necessary for a rich client
This echoes my previous remark that Silverlight 2 suggests a route to a [...]

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I can understand why people sometimes get the impression that I’m a .NET hater. Most recently, this includes my former colleague David Arno. So, time for me to clarify my position (again).
Firstly, what really concerns me is when people can’t be bothered to think for themselves. They blindly accept whatever someone tells [...]

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I understand that Microsoft’s new WorldWide Telescope is an impressive piece of software.
However, Nick Bradbury has highlighted the horrendous installation procedure, which apparently involves up to 12 steps. Nick has this to say: -
Those of us who believe that desktop software is still relevant in abrowser-based world should be up in arms about how [...]

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Mindjet, makers of the wonderful MindManager mapping tool, are reporting that upgrading to .NET Framework 2.0 breaks one of their primary products. Users are recommended to not install .NET Framework 2.0.
This is not an isolated incident. In October, Microsoft released a fix to allow Tablet PC software to continue working with .NET 2.0.
How [...]

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Over time, I’ve found that really good software - I don’t mean software that just does the job, but that does it simply and elegantly and looks gorgeous - is very often written using Borland Delphi.
Nevertheless, I was pretty amazed to find today that the Skype client for Windows is a Delphi application. I [...]

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.NET brings rich class libraries, garbage collection, code portability (at least nominally), and a few other benefits. But we’ve had most of this for years: .NET is a minor evolutionary step on from what already existed in Java, Delphi and other development systems. It doesn’t bring anything new that’s of real consequence.
What would [...]

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Given the title of this blog, maybe I’ve been a bit quiet on why I’m not totally enamoured with .NET.
To make a case, I’m going to need to refer to some older material, so please forgive me if you’ve seen this before.
Richard Grimes is a well known author and speaker on COM and .NET. [...]

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Am I imagining it, or is Microsoft more inclined to speak my language of late?
I’m hearing less about Indigo, Avalon and XAML, and more about REST, Ajax and RSS. And that’s the way it should be - the future lies with cross-platform interoperability, especially with mobile devices such as smartphones, and not with fancy [...]

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In my opening post I mentioned that, in the past, I might have called this blog “the case against C++”. In other words, I’m taking issue with developers who unquestioningly use languages and technologies without looking at what’s most appropriate for their application (i.e. the herd mentality). .NET is simply the most recent [...]

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Scoble has been asking whether venture capitalists (VCs) are investing in .NET developments.
This is a bizarre, geeky kind of question. A good VC won’t care whether the project rests on .NET or any other platform. He’ll be looking for innovation leading to return on investment.
So where does .NET offer the potential of productivity [...]

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