>>Going to the original question: Yes, I think that .NET is the Universal Hammer (for the Windows platform, until now).
>
>Because of large hardware requirements, I don't see .NET as a universal solution for the Windows platform, at least for now. Perhaps in 3-4 years.

Yes, my statement should have being: .NET is the Universal Hammer (for the Windows 2000 or higher platform, until now). It is true that you CAN run .NET apps in Windows 98 and others, but it is not the actual target platform.