>> Just a side question perhaps you can give a personal opinion on:
>> is .NET's true main competitor Java?

Not sure I am the right person to answer this.

C#/VB.NET compete with Java. So it is language against language.

The .NET Framework therefore should probably be a EJB competitor.

.NET (as in "the runtime environment") is probably more a Linux competitor.

But I am not sure. I guess everyone has a different viewpoint on things. .NET is just much larger than just an individual language or compiler...

Markus