Wednesday, December 15, 2004

J2EE versus .NET

Update: since I wrote this article, my opinion of .NET has changed, matured even. In my opinion, Microsoft have added significant desktop integration and rich client features to the .NET platform that other technologies need to address and quickly.

This article took a lot longer to write than I anticipated. Don't tell Microsoft though, or they'll probably publish this quote claiming that J2EE articles take longer to write than .NET equivalents :-) Michael Monteiro and I pooled forces to put together a balanced assessment of J2EE versus .NET. You may find our recommendations bland and "on the fencey", but they're accurate - there is no "winner". J2EE stands for a Java-based cross-platform technology stack, .NET stands for a multiple-language based single platform technology stack.

Interestingly, a lot of the reader feedback centered on exactly how truthful Microsoft is in claiming that .NET is truly viable for multi-language development. Other readers were quick to point out the hidden effort in porting existing applications to the .NET platform. Javaworld were kind enough to have a special follow-on issue of reader's letters to capture this feedback -

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-07-2002/jw-0726-letters.html

Bottom line #1: J2EE and .NET are both viable systems for enterprise development.

Bottom line #2: I like .NET. I'm also happy to use Windows as well as {U | Li} nix. Come to think of it, I don't particularly have a problem with any Microsoft technology (except for the security issues). It's the company I have a problem with. I also think that the only entity powerful enough to rein in Microsoft will be Microsoft itself - through exorbitant licensing practices that erode it's own market share.

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-06-2002/jw-0628-j2eevsnet.html

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