Re:Not just time... (Score 1)

I am in agreement that we actually do agree on quite a bit. Just a few more comments.

One of the things I like that a friend of mine turned me on to about the 2.0 release of .NET is that they are going to take some cues from the Webstart paradigm. Assemblies build using 2.0 will be able to include a "mount point" of sorts allowing new assemblies to be downloaded automatically by the CLR. This will prove to be huge - the one advantage here is that capability will be built into the OS as opposed to people having to install and Configure Webstart - I think that will give .NET a slight advantage.

As far as the different versions of Windows - you do have a point. People for sure have older versions of Windows lying around. I would hope by the time Longhorn comes out people at least have migrated to a Win2K or later version of the MSFT OS.

This of course requires installing the .NET framework (if the OS is pre-XP) to allow .NET apps to execute but I think that it is worth it in order to reap the JIT and other benefits provided by the CLR.

I really believe in the end, just the competition that is created .NET as an alternative to JAVA will be healthy. It will definately be interesting to see how this agreement between MSFT and SUN affects both development paths in the future. I think the two wildcards longterm will be IBM and Novell - both of which have their own Linux/JAVA/MONO/etc. initiatives.