Why Should You Use .NET?

Sean Russell

CIO
Germane-Software
60252 Rimfire Rd.
Bend, OR, 97702
USA

Copyright © 2002 by

Abstract

A very brief perspective on .NET and C#

Table of Contents

Introduction
Innovation
Standards
So what do you get when you buy into .NET?

Introduction

I've been encountering people lately, who've been trying to convince me that .NET is somehow a Good Idea.

Innovation

The argument is that .NET is proof that Microsoft can innovate. Let's take a look at the innovative features of .NET

  • Virtual Machine (Java, Oberon)

  • Inter-application communication (XMLRPC, CORBA, RMI)

  • Services (CORBA, JNS, XMLRPC, HTTP)

  • Language agnostic (CORBA, Java)

The real innovation, .NET proponents will then say, was in putting all of these together into one platform. You'll have to use .NET, they said, because everything Microsoft will be based on .NET. This is innovation? Innovation is forcing others to use your technology? It isn't even marketting innovation; monopolies have been doing this ever since there's been supply and demand.

Standards

(xxe note -- when there's only one possible element to insert, auto insert it)

"But, C# and the CLR has been submitted to the ECMA standards group!"

So what? Is this going to, in any way, shape, or form affect what Microsoft does with C#, the CLR, or .NET? No, it won't. Microsoft still controls C# and the CLR; the ECMA submission is a smokescreen. The industry will follow the language owners, in this case Microsoft, just as they do with Sun in Java.

So what do you get when you buy into .NET?

Microsoft's proven track record in:

  • Design! (Windows line count)

  • Security! (Does this need clarification?)

  • Stability! (Hoo, boy.)

  • and of course, their well know magnanimous, altruistic, helpful nature

What you get is a dependancy on a standard that is utterly controlled by Microsoft. You get the ability to program in a watered-down version of your language, and have it (maybe) run on other machines.