>Hi Mike,
>
>>>SMO: shows the plus side of a fwk - if you can stay inside Dotnet...
>>>It is not only the Dotnet stuff: almost every web fwk (RoR, Django...) works that way as well,
>>>having/mentioning database first only for existing DB or dinosaurs, if at all.
>>>
>>>Code first has the benefit of better integration with source control,
>>>whereas DD/schema based sometimes resorts to YAML or other kludge.
>>
>>You are one of the people I respect most here but we are in different camps on this point. I do not regard Windows databases as a limiting factor at all. That's not dissing the others at all but I do not feel like I'm floating around on an iceberg. (That would be FoxPro). Conceptually model first works just fine for me.
>
>as I wrote in the other post, on technical grounds I think dotnet to be superior to the java-JVM.
>
>It is not the Windows databases (Oracle, DB2, Postgres and SQLite run just fine, even if minimally slower),
>but the Windows ecosystem as such giving trouble. On the one hand I have clients steadfast in the java camp as they
>also have big iron (insurance companies), gov clients more often than not prefer java solutions to Dotnet as well,
>creating XML/RPC dummy sessions there first, if not only.
>There is a difference between old and new world in languages and jvm's asked for:
>Python is a no-go for most clients here as well, if they have already something deployed.
>
>Startups shy away from the added cost of win-servers (not a big factor for me client-wise),
>there you can land with Python instead of PHP if your foot is the first in the door,
>but the failure of MS to get a hold in the mobile/pad market is another big block for me.
>Silverlight going bust after Symbian fell through the roof (and many floors) is ok,
>but MS should buy Xamarin and offer top quality support for android at least,
>as they earn quite a bit more from that area compared to WP7.
>
>MS is eaten without it noticing by the mental switch from PC as personal device to
>the pad or smartphone. Somehow reminicent of NT gobbling up all those Novell,Unix
>and propriatry OS running systems like DEC coming in from ground up.
>
>regards
>
>thomas

Only a fool could miss the gains of tablets and smartphones in the market. For a while they were regarded as toys, the same as PCs originally were. That said, Windows is still the environment. The rest are still only players.