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but I can't see it being an improvement over the ASP.NET version.

Well, it would have been more scalable and fault-tolerant, for sure.

ASP, even ASP.NET, doesn't scale very well.

You wouldn't have "single-vendor" lockin for your DB or web server -- there are far better web servers out there than IIS. If a more complex rich-client Gui was required, you'd be able to scale to a Java applet.

It would be less risky, since the Java has been heavily tested in real work for many years and the .NET version is brand-new, and certain to have many issues pop up.

And if you had done it in Java to begin with, you wouldn't have to have revisited the issue later, like you did.

It sounds like since you're an MS-only shop, they paid you to use the lesser technology even tho a better solution was available. You were forced to use the lesser technology. I'd say that's still the case with your locking to IIS and SQLServer.

You know, there is no such thing as a "Java-only" shop like there are MS-only shops.

You have 2 kinds of software shops -- ones that use the best solution available, regardless of tech (and they all use a mix of techs, with Java doing most of the heavy lifting) and then the shops who are 'MS Strategic Partners' and 'MS Early Adopters'. They're paid to use MS-only.

If MS is having to *pay* companies to *force* use of their technology, that is not a good sign for the technology's future.

MS doesn't pay us. We have only 100 employees - and we use Microsoft products to avoid the Tower of Babel that results from adopting a "Best of Breed" approach. The simple fact is, for the kind of development we do, Microsoft tools work perfectly. SQL Server 2000 is ideally suited to our needs, IIS is easy to configure and secure enough for our Intranet, and Visual Studio .NET makes the kind of applications we build easy to roll out.

Until Microsoft flat-out fails to deliver on something big, we'll keep using their tools. We, like most other small to medium-sized companies, don't have time to be a "technology laboratory". Microsoft helps us get real work done fast - so that's why we use their products.

"ASP, even ASP.NET, doesn't scale very well."

Where is your proof?

Harr, listen, guy, you make such accusations and then claim that "everybody knows it", but Microsoft and millions of people have the benefit of success. Plus, I don't know it, and after 20+ years developing systems, and 23 years using Microsoft products and technologies, I totally disagree with you, so I guess it is "everyone but PatrioticAmerican"?

If Java is the only thing going that works, why are there so many people benefiting from Microsoft products and technologies?