I still don’t see how Microsoft comes out the winner here.
How popular is .NET compared to Java nowadays anyway ?
If you were to stake your career on mastering one technology, which one is the technology with the brighter future?
Oh, that’s a loaded question. They’re both popular. They’re just vastly different in their perspective, that’s all.
Or, rather, they possibly used to be.
.Net was MSFT’s answer to Java - sort of.
.Net is ostensibly a Windows-based development platform, Mono notwithstanding.
Java was designed to be available across Windows, Unix, OS X and portable devices from the get-go.
The popularity issue isn’t always the first question to ask here. If you’re going to be rolling out your application/suite on Windows only, and you’re using MSFT’s tools for development... you will probably find that .Net is the path of least resistance.
If you need to run your app on multiple platforms... you’re foolish to not at least look closely at Java.
But if all you’re doing on the other platforms is running a database or some other server, and most (or all) of the GUI stuff is on Windows... .Net might be a better fit for you.
In terms of which has better uptake in terms of number of developers or projects - I don’t know the answer to that question, but from looking at job postings (which I do not because I want a job, but because I use job postings to judge the expansion or financial growth path of a company now - those who are hiring should be seeing upcoming customer demand), I’d say that .Net is starting up pick up momentum vs. Java.
The big advantage with Java used to be that it came from Sun, and Sun (unlike Microsoft) wasn’t a pack of flaming jerks to work with.
With Oracle now having bought Sun, and many of the Java team leaving for greener or nicer pastures, I think Java will have the same (or worse) liabilities as Microsoft in this aspect. Oracle is a company known in Silly Valley for producing world-class jerks.
Lisp. Ruby. Python. Scala. Clojure.
Java, if you must. It's a wordy dog's breakfast of a language, but there are lots of tempting libraries available. In most cases, you can exploit these via JRuby and avoid soiling yourself with the actual Java language.
But never .Net!
My advice, know both, many shops use both .NET and Java-based technologies. I do think it’s easier from someone in the Java-world to adapt to .NET, than vice-versa.