For every "industry expert" you can find, I can another to counter this - including myself.

In the windows world, .NET is not facing an uphill battle...

Having said that, in looking at the J2EE model, I don't a significant difference from what has been espoused for the past few years. i.e., nothing new.

First and foremost - I am a windows developer - windows is my platform. How can my development efforts be more productive on the platform. I know this sounds like marketing speak - and FWIW, I suppose it is. But, it is also common sense.

The bottom line is this: .NET is the platform for windows development. All the people here and the the people that primary use VB, VFP, etc are windows developers first and foremost. This is why .NET is the next logical step for VFP developers. VFP provides a way to participate in the platform, but in all material respects, VFP is largely on the outside looking in when it comes to .NET. When you are inside .NET, you get the full benefit of the franchise. This is why I want the OS and the application platform built by the same company. There are economies of scale that could not be realized otherwise. Yes, MS should provide access to third parties - but in no case should the two be split up. I am getting off track here a bit - but it does help to solidify my point of why .NET is the place to be.

In sum - if the platform is Unix, Linux, or something else that is non-windows. In the windows world however, I will choose the platform optimized for that environment in the absense of a compelling reason to choose otherwise.