JAVA VS .NET
I always get question about Java vs .Net ,so ,I tried to find few points about it and also love to have others comment on it. Thanks to Narayan, Sudhakar and Nauzad for valuable feedback.
From Narayan's Desk
My ten cents: Also find my answers in-line to your forwarded questions.
1> When Sun entered the Web application space, they stole everything they
could from ASP and even now Sun has started to respond to C# in the JDK 1.5
that will have features that are clearly inspired directly from C#. At Java
One they announced some kind of new desktop development system where they
want to make the creation of GUI desktop apps easier than VB.
NRS: It indicates that Sun in reality accepts the technical superiority of
the C# and .NET platform in a way.
Suggest reading the following article as well:
Sun, Microsoft officials face off in Java vs. .Net debate
http://www.computerworld.com/developmenttopics/development/java/story/0,10801,78026,00.html
2> Java has taken more than a decade to mature and even today is not the
perfect answer to many computing needs. In less than two years of its
release .NET has praises even from their counterparts. Recommend reading the
following article;
http://www.computerweekly.com/Article111133.htm
http://weblogs.java.net/pub/wlg/292
NRS: Notice that the executives from Borland, IBM and others have silently
acknowledged the acceptance of .NET in the enterprise and have not made any
comment against .NET :-)
3> Open source stance by big names is a gimmick to attract developers and
small businesses. How many products from IBM, SUN and others are really open
source implementations? Are they giving everything that they develop free of
cost? If so, where from their revenues come from? If they are so open, why
are they not supporting the CLI specification which got ratified by a
neutral body like ECMA unlike Java? Does this mean that they have vested
interests in protecting Java supremacy in the whole range of their product
suits that they sell? If these companies are so big fans of open source why
are these companies filing IPR's on their own company names?
NRS: I feel that open source is a wagon being exploited by big brands
protect their vested interests.
1) The .NET framework serves little purpose for a
CD-ROM-distributed product, that may run on one machine / the local
LAN at a customer's premises.
NRS: .NET Framework and MSDE technologies (both of which are free and
distributable) could be used in conjunction to address this with lot of
superiority over the existing technologies.
2) There are open-source free software including databases, which
require no licensing fees.
NRS: Both .NET Frmework & MSDE are free of cost and are freely
distributable.
Suggest visting the following link which removes the mis-conceptions that
.NET framework
solution can't be packed into a CD-ROM for demonstrating purposes at the
client locations.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/downloads/addins/msde/genfaq.aspx
3) The costs of developing in Java is lower, both in terms of
costs of development software and the availablity of skilled manpower
working with legal products.
NRS: This statement is contrary to the many industry reports which mention
about
Java Developers being paid more! Suggest going through one of the latest
reports.
And I don't think any vendor is selling illegal products!
Average Salary by Skill Area 2003 Report - Native Currency
http://crm.ittoolbox.com/research/2003ITSalarySurvey.asp?i=23
Single vendor solution provide lot of productivity, maintenance and
integration benefits while providing option for the interoperability and
integration with other products and applications. Further they also reduce
the TCO.
Even Sun themselves have realized the importance of providing single vendor
solutions and Sun ONE is nothing but presenting collection of different
kind of tools and servers under a single umbrella (by Sun) which they
acquired in the recent times.
4) The availability of skilled manpower, on opensource software,
opens up new models for providing support on a national level.
NRS: Because open-source software's are ''free,'' the thinking seems to go,
it will reduce TCO. This reasoning is flawed, because open-source software
can require more manpower and attention to match the reliability,
availability, and scalability of high-end Unix and Windows 2000 or XP
servers. And there's the cost of high-availability add-ons, such as
clustering partitioning and ''journaled'' file systems, as well as
third-party support -- all of which jack up the overall cost and complexity
of open-source software.
License is free probably has little impact on the TCO of significant
projects, such as ERP and CRM implementations. This is because the license
is typically less than 2% or 3% of the TCO of such projects. - Meta Group
With regards to the availability of skilled resources almost all the reports
suggests that MS platform developers out number Java Developers. So, it
would be unfair to think that there is shortage of skilled manpower w.r.t MS
technologies.
5) Java is a more stable platfrom as compared to .Net, which is
fairly new and designed to mimic J2EE.
NRS: Even the most renowned fans of J2EE agree to the fact that J2EE is
getting increasingly complex and feel that the structure of the JEEP needs
some kind of overhauling. You could go though the comments that were posted
after the Java Pet Store Vs .NET Pet store implementation.
Most of them even agree to the fact that the deployment of the J2EE
application across various vendor solutions is not so easy.
Also suggest going through my comments in paragraphs 1 & 2 in the beginning
of the mail
6) With a price-point of around Rs.20,000, the product is
targeted at the mass market. The costs of entry is significantly
lower with Java, than with a .NET solution. At the very least,
customers would be required to invest in a .NET-compliant server,
resulting in investments in both hardware and OS. With Java, the
CDROM can ship with the necessary frameworks, for free, such as
Apache, Struts or JBoss, and installation can be made seamless.
NRS: Please refer to the answer provided in under question no 4
7) Java is becoming increasingly pervasive on mobile devices,
with most major manufacturers suppporting the standard. The wireless
offering you are proposing will be easier with a Java solution,
rather than having to force customers to purchase the relatively
fewer Microsoft-compliant handheld devices.
NRS: I am in agreement with this statement but however am confident that
MS would come up with a befitting answer to this. I feel that the latest
revamping of mobile initiative also a good thing in that direction
8) The development team is being formed from scratch. Existing
developers can easily move to the Java platform, at the application
development level
NRS: Any one who is in the IT for quite some time perhaps will not agree to
this statement
as the ease of learning of MS tools and technologies is far better when
compared with existing tools and technolgies. MS technolgies are always
known for their ease of use and faster learning.
Thanks
-Suresh