Hi Pertti,

the mono effort is actually sanctioned by Microsoft, who feeds them both specs and code and engineering consultation, so their ability to keep up is actually pretty good. In some cases, it is arguably the case that they improve on the MS product, because as we have all likely experienced at one time or another, rewriting a product almost always makes it better.

Hank

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>>I am not so much interested in dotnet; not so much because Java is freeware, and dotnet is more commercially oriented; more because dotnet is oriented towards Windows, and if I do learn a new language, I want one that was developed from the start for multiple platforms.
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>The newest incarnations of dotnet are actually multiplatform, at least if you are writing SilverLight apps, which can run totally within a browser, regardless of the underlying operating system. There is also the open source mono project that enables dotnet apps to run on Linux/Unix/etc., but I'm afraid those guys will be always playing catch-up. Besides, unless they are 100% compatible with "the real thing", they are not worth all that much of my energy, IMHO.