The point is they aren't random and lots of other people have tens of thousands of .NET apps deployed that don't crash. Furthermore, if the exception handling was any good the log would tell you exactly where the problem is.

I know I sound like an Internet douche-bag, but seriously - good professional developers don't have these problems.

Let me be the first to say: They are doing it wrong.

There is no such thing as a 'random app error'. Such things are almost always excuses used by developers who suck at development regardless of the tool set. I would be willing to bet a week's pay that in 5 minutes of code review I'd find that they do not properly dispose object instances or close database connections.

You can use BizSpark and avoid any licensing costs until you are a viable business.http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/

They also have a ton of support for startups, including funding if they really like you.

This is just FUD. Microsoft has the BizSpark program and similar programs for exactly this type of start-up. He can run MS for five years and not pay a dime in license fees. If he has millions of users in 5 years, getting the money to run any stack will not be an issue.

Stack overflow serves something like 100mm pages a month on 1 rack of Windows servers.

That said, if he doesn't know how to set up a Web server and wants to focus on building a product, hosted and managed cloud is the way to go.

It's easy to criticize the complexity of Windows, OSX, and Linux machines when you are pushing a product with very few features.

Programming is programming regardless of the platform. I've had clients and projects I didn't like, but generally speaking writing code is fun for me.

I have nothing against someone who has an idea in some unexplored niche where there is little money to be made. However, there is a word for someone who takes a job to work on someone else's vision who doesn't care about the money they make - chump.

I guess as the hirer you probably do want the hire-ee to ignore they pay so you can maximize the benefit you get out of said chump. And hey, if you can get away with it, more power to you. We're all consenting adults here. I doubt you'll be able to consistently find any but the least experienced to fall for it for long though. Great developers tend not to be chumps.

I don't know about Apache, but IIS does support host headers for different host names on the same SSL port. Each virtual host can have its own cert.

I think an e-ink device like the Kindle makes more sense. You can't read an IPad worth a darn in bright sunlight.

You know, I have to disagree that 3D has nothing to do with storytelling. I thought that the ashes and embers as the forest burned in Avatar very effectively enhanced the sorrow and the ability to feel empathy for the aliens.

I agree that it is usually gratuitous, but I really like how modern filmmakers are beginning to play around with perspective in new ways. Have you seen Spartacus - Blood and Sand? They play with visual layers in ways that I think transforms scenes that would otherwise be nothing but gratuitous gore into something very worthwhile and immersive.

It wouldn't surprise me to find out that the cinematographer is blocking the shots in three dimensions purposefully even though the show is currently shown only in 2D.

Whoever modded this offtopic should click the parent button. Does Slashdot still meta moderate?

DESPITE claimed complete rewrites of the code

Claims by who? Do you have a link? If this is true I'm not surprised your post is currently 5:Informative because I have never heard of this and I like to think I pay close attention in this space.

SharePoint 2010 does not fully support IE 6.0. It is a down-level browser. SharePoint 2010 does fully support FireFox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera.

Just thought you'd be happy to know.

Everything in the app I mentioned is compatible under mono except for the browser integration (at least it was at that point, wouldn't swear to it now). We went with IE because the full API did what was required. I appreciate that we could have created our own API to Gecko, but from what we saw, the crucial bits were missing. More to the point our goal was to create an application that happened to have some browser functionality - not to create a rich API to a platform when a ready to use alternative was already at our disposal.

Some may not like mono, but in my experience it is a pretty decent platform.

As far as the quality of the app, I'm glad you won't be using it. You sound like someone I'd give their money back to if I ever had the pleasure of taking a support call from you. You must be a super genius to know all about it based on the presence of a single component.