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Follow Us".NET is Not", claims Sun. Bill Gates recently acknowledged that he still meets people who still ask - "What is .NET really?" and this .NET knot has forced Microsoft to drop the brand name from its new flagship product Windows Server 2003. Was .NET trying to be too many things to too many people at the same time?
The chaos was caused by the indiscriminate use of the ".NET" in a host of Microsoft efforts - My Services .NE, Passport .NET, Visual Studio .NET and TechNET. Microsoft needed to separate its Windows operating systems and Office desktop application from ".NET as a development tool". The distinction right now is blurred, to say the least.
The plug on the .NET marketing initiative might have been pulled off but .NET as a technology is far from being written off. Not withstanding detractor’s claims that Microsoft’s Web services strategy is in doldrums, .NET framework is popular with the developer community for its rich class libraries, managed runtime and its assemblies. The Visual Studio .NET makes it very easy for developers to build a web service. In addition, .NET’s support for most major programming languages means that developers find the environment more accommodating than J2EE, which only supports Java. On the other hand, the J2EE technology is looked upon as being sturdier and more mature.
As a community, developers are divided about their preferences for J2EE and .NET — probably relying on their personal technical background and personal tastes to recommend one above the other.
Microsoft may have played down the .NET brand name, but it has gone ahead and tied up with Borland on .NET. Borland has announced the launch of a .NET tool code named Sidewinder, for C# development. This could provide developers with a much needed alternative to Microsoft’s own .NET tools and allow the use .NET in a mixed environment.
Sun sends its chief McNealy to India to wean developers away from .NET. But Microsoft is hoping that .NET’s popularity with the geeks will lead to a popularity boom.