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"Other than windows platforms where does .Net run well? You cant compile it on any other system so is it not fair to say its definatly not cross platform?"

So far as I know the .NET Framework is only installable on Windows 2003 Server, Windows XP and XP Professional, and Windows 2000 with the appropriate service packs.

However; it is not the capability to install .NET on distinct server platforms that defines the test of "cross-platform interoperability," which refers to the capability of software installed on one development platform to communicate, interact, and exchange data and information with software installed on a distinct development platform. Microsoft .NET's Common Language Runtime, its OLE DB data provider technology, and its top-of-the-line XML and XML Web Services capabilities give it the ability to run applications that can interact with many other types of applications installed almost anywhere else. Unix, Solaris, OS2, OS/400, SAP, and many other operating systems -- I think it would be fair to say "most operating systems used widely in business processes" -- can run software that calls applications installed with .NET or can be called by them in return. Microsoft .NET does more to remove the barriers that have existed between development platforms, and which have impeded information exchange between them for years, than any other technology now available.