>C# as a replacement for delphi or C or java, why not? C# as replacement for the smart VFP interpreter?
This is a matter of developmental approach/preference. Doesn't really matter from point of the finished app, but my be connected to the kind of people you saw at the conference. They need scripting even more than we <g>.
Making the app foolproof (the last 20% functionality taking nearly 80% of time) can at least partly be skipped if you only develop the specialized solution for the problem and not a shrink-wrappable solution.

>More than three months full-time learning and you're not even slightly productive, even die-hard programmers. That certainly makes some sense for MS in terms of getting a complete monopoly, over bodies and brains.

But OTOH the "defined" platform is what makes a desktop app possible - the fragmentation is pehaps the biggest reason driving web/AJAX development. And since OS knowadays tends to overlap with gadget's, it has to become a mess, and something as huge as .Net becomes logical.

regards

thomas