There is too much messy syntactic sugar – you don’t really know what’s going on in many cases when sometimes you need to. The compiling and linking model is more like traditional languages than Java, so you don’t benefit as much from a so-called `JIT’ compiler as you do in Java (it’s a valid trade-off to be sure, but claiming .NET CLR is in any way the same as a javavm is nonsense). The API and libraries are not as consistent or as usable as the Java ones – for example, details are abstracted too much in some places and not enough in others (Dictionary, and List, please raise your hands). And finally, as an `enterprise platform’ it is simply a joke – more like ‘visual basic for dummies’ than a real platform. Both of these last points are partly due to maturity of Java, and making the same mistakes over again (and so in fact, not learning from Java at all).

To sum up:

Java is a platform, .NET is only a product.

And pretty much like everything MS has ever made, not a very good one.

FWIW I’ve been paid to write C-# for the last 3+ years, dabbled with mono some time ago, and have been paid to write Java in the past.

I think the patents are a pain but should not be the focus for any free software vendor. The effort to help turn what is just an MS product into a MS-controlled platform is sheer lunacy.

— André