How is .NET a lockin strategy?

Ok, somebody explain how .NET is a locking strategy?  I don't see it?  I don't get it?  .NET is a better development environment for web based applications.  It provides a better and more secure platform for applications.  It opens up the internals of Windows systems better than VB ever did or could.  I can write Windows Services faster, quicker, and easier than before.  Wonder how hard it is to write an NLM now (wonder if most people even know what an NLM is anymore)?  I have been using Web Services for 3 years now.  I do not care what the other side's operating system is.  I know how to architect a solution that is not platform specific.  It makes no difference to me.  I transfer standard XML across the wire.  How is this a lock-in?  If this is a lock-in strategy, then maybe Wardens Ballmer and Gates can throw the key away to my cell.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1304327,00.asp

Wally “Man did I get up on the wrong side of the bed today” McClure  ;-)

2 Comments

  • You are locked into using Microsoft Windows because .NET applications can only run on the Windows operating system. If you wrote your application in a language like C++ you can port it to other operating systems. Before you say "What about Mono?" ask yourself *today* would I deploy my production application on Mono. I hope you said "No." When do you think your answer would change? Maybe two years? That's a pretty risky bet that in two years Mono will be 100% compatible with .NET.



    There's nothing wrong with vendor lock-in if you accept the risks. At the company I work for we've locked ourselves to a proprietary application server. The vendor has decided to take the application server in a different direction than the one we want to go in. We have spent millions writing applications to this application server.

  • I see articles all over the internet all the time about this. My take on it is this:



    Before you begin the write an application, you discuss and decide up front the best tools to accomplish your task or complete the project. Things like: What type of server to use, which database, what OS, etc...



    Multi-platform apps are great when you want to write an application that can be taken from one OS to another with no or minimal code changes. This is good when you have a app that you want to sell to as many people as you can. But....when you are writing an enterprise solution ( especially for a client ) how often are you going to move that application from one OS to another??? you're not. If you do, it will definitly be more than just recompiling the code on the new OS.



    And what about taking advantages of the OS itself. If I decide to write an enterprise solution on the Microsoft or Sun or Unix platform, I am going to write it to where it is as fast, stable and scalable as possible. This is going to require low level programming that's specific to that OS. A good Java program will never be as fast, stable and scalable on the Microsoft platform as a good C++ program. Even VB will do a better job when using Win API calls the correct way.



    .NET a lock-in strategy...I don't see it. Its no more of a lock-in than investing in a free OS and 2 to 3 years down the road, people decide it's time to be paid for for the many hours spent devoping something that another company will use for free to make money off of. Guess I got up on the wrong side too. :)

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