25 pathetic attempts to make .NET look bad
develop.com | at | by Mike
Carlos Perez has posted 25 reasons why he thinks Java is a better platform than .NET, and I kind of feel sorry for him. Why? Because I've written like 100 lines of Java in my life and I'm pretty sure I could come up with better arguments than these. Many of Carlos's reasons are only tangentially related to the Java platform and are more about perceptions than technical excellence. That makes me sad - Java deserves better.
Unfortunately the reality in this industry is that perceptions matter as much as technology, so I feel compelled to respond. I'm pretty sure I'm being trolled for doing so, but it's such juicy bait I can't help it. Before I do, let me be clear - I like software. I've been around enough platforms to find joy in all of them, including Java. Java introduced some important ideas to the mass market, many of which obviously made it into .NET and were refined in the process. JUnit, Ant, SAX parsing, Eclipse - lots of great stuff comes out of the Java space (as well as stinkeroos like Swing). It is not my intention to smear the Java platform here, rather to smear the arguments proposed by Carlos.