>Bull. Microsoft did NOT bet the company on .NET. They have a ton of money in reserve (40? 50? billions) and they will easily survive if .NET utterly fails.

I woudln't be too sure about that. Keep in mind, everything they are working on right now is based on .NET. If .NET fails, what, pickup and start over from where they were two years ago? I don't think 40bill can make that happen

And if it could, what about their image? Who could every put money into that company if they fell flat on our there face and it took 40 billion to make it stand up again.