Mel,
>Are there any other dual Java and C# users reading this, and if so am I missing something - or is Java and C# just that similar as they appear to be? Any additional thoughts on NetBeans 6.9 and Eclipse are also welcome.

IMHO you are entirely correct trying to be comfortable with both languages. Being able to grok code without mental pause
in my book outweighs those moments where I have to think on using StringBuffer or StringBuilder...
Craig's observation on the preference for C# in "real tasks" has merit in my book, but I attribute it at least partially
to the "company culture" prevalent - java habitats tend to be more overengineered as more layers of managment
try to hinder work. Both languages get unwieldy as projects grow in size compared to dynamic languages like vfp or python
[my personal training ground as replacement for vfp, but I did java back last century for over a year...], with C# having less problems.

I personally prefer some dynamic usage even when programming there: I used Jython when devolping java and am currently using
Ironpython, where at least 1/3 of the code will move to C#. Creating in IPy and moving the code from each week to C# on Fridays
makes me much more productive, but I am quite fast translating. Gets discussed at the start of jobs, but discussion is easily quenched
when measured against the tasks completed. YMMV <bg>. *IF* you decide on java for long a stretch of time, check out groovy:
much closer to java syntactically, so translation is already halfway done.

my 0.0001 EUR

thomas