The latest edition of Software Development Times (December 1, 2002) has printed both a large article on .NET development as well as an opinion piece on .NET. The article on .NET development is titled "Delivering on a Promise" with a subtitle of "Despite a steeper-than-anticipated learning curve, .NET adopters believe Microsoft has sown seeds for future development" and can be found at http://www.sdtimes.com/news/067/special1.htm. The editorial is titled "Building .NET Apps" and can be found at http://www.sdtimes.com/opinions/opinion_067.htm.

Microsoft is not an active advertiser in this magazine, so opinions and articles about Microsoft's products will show less bias than, say, Information Week. Both articles have a slightly more positive opinion of .NET than I do at this point. The articles do indicate that .NET to date is a fringe product with not too much penetration. With one exception, C# and VB.NET are not mentioned at all -- indicating that people aren't doing much development with either language.

There's too many quotes to post, so read the links yourself and report what you think are the highlights...

Bill Anderson