If all of our servers were Microsoft we would be .NET, but if you have a bunch of legacy systems running on different platforms and OS’s then Java is the only thing that makes sense.
Yeah, well, I still don’t like Java. I want the power to destroy worlds. Java is too playpen-ish.
But still, it is just a tool. Any tool can be used well.
Having never programmed .NET, I am pretty ignorant on the subject. But, what little I have read leads me to think it's something along the lines of what Borland did with its VCL a LOOOOooong time ago: an easier-to-use set of libraries, objects, etc. which make Windows programming faster, safer and more reliable than coding straight in the API. The VCL could be deployed as run-time BPLs (Borland's DLLs) or linked in for a single-file executable.
Of course, the VCL is not as multi-lingual as .NET appears to be, so there are certainly differences. But isn't that basically what .NET does: provide a framework and huge library to simplify Windows programming?
Am I completely off base?