From time to time, I get the odd ball query of, “tell me why .NET is better than J2EE.” There’s no singular answer to that question. One of the things I am emphatically passionate about is the wholeness and completeness of our [Microsoft] platform and its ability for developers, architects and users to get things done better, faster and cheaper than our competition. What follows below is an excerpt from an e-mail I recently sent in answering the question, “What does .NET bring to the table that is different or better than J2EE?”
We’ve no good single body of work that answers the question the below. Things to consider include:
Consider the reach that .NET has … there’s virtually nothing on the face of the planet that we cannot get to with .NET, be it directly or via server products like BizTalk Server 2006.
Consider the value we add to desktop and mobile programming models:
Consider the amazing value-add we are including in the platform moving forward:
Want justification for moving over to a pure Microsoft model for web-site development and such? Consider this:
Consider all the work we do in our server platform and tools:
Consider Office as the most widely adopted client platform on the face of the planet:
One of the last things asked for in the original query was support for JSR-168. Let me first clarify that, just like JMS, JSR-168 is a Java API. We don’t do Java APIs (well, there is J# but that’s a discussion for another day.) So, we [Microsoft] don’t do JSR-168 and we don’t do JMS. It’s like me asking someone who builds Java applications, “How do you build WinFX applications in Java? But I do want to point out another huge value-add that you get with .NET Framework 2.0 and specifically, ASP.NET 2.0:
ASP.NET 2.0 provides a complete framework for building portal applications, complete with personalization, dynamic page creation from a gallery of Web parts (i.e., “portlets”) and the ability for those Web parts to communicate seamlessly with each other. And once again, you get this with the platform! Take Windows Server 2003 and Visual Web Developer 2005 Express (the latter available for no charge at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vwd/) and go build what you’re likely to spend thousands and thousands of dollars for in the J2EE world for the same functionality. Of course, if you truly feel the need to spend capital, consider SharePoint Portal Server as the hosting environment for your Web parts and take advantage of the best collaboration platform (Office and SharePoint) you can buy on the planet. Go ahead. I dare you.
ASP.NET 2.0 provides a complete framework for building portal applications, complete with personalization, dynamic page creation from a gallery of Web parts (i.e., “portlets”) and the ability for those Web parts to communicate seamlessly with each other. And once again, you get this with the platform! Take Windows Server 2003 and Visual Web Developer 2005 Express (the latter available for no charge at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vwd/) and go build what you’re likely to spend thousands and thousands of dollars for in the J2EE world for the same functionality.
Of course, if you truly feel the need to spend capital, consider SharePoint Portal Server as the hosting environment for your Web parts and take advantage of the best collaboration platform (Office and SharePoint) you can buy on the planet. Go ahead. I dare you.