Ask HN: (No) Microsoft based start-ups?

I think this is probably fairly accurate.

People will (generally) use whatever tool they're familiar with, regardless of whether it is actually better for the job or not. Therefore it makes sense that the person's background will be a fairly large determining factor in what language they use. Someone (like me) that comes from a decade of developing "enterprise" .NET applications is most likely going to choose .NET. Someone with that same background is likely to be less concerned about the latest "cool" tech, and more interested in just getting the job done.

It also has a fair bit to do with resources. If you're running on little cash, it makes sense to use the cheapest tools and hosting available. Whilst, MS offer free version of all their tools, you still need to pay for hosting your app. That's the big turn off for many.

For us, it is a combination of my .NET experience, the fact that hosting price isn't a huge issue (our web design and .NET consultancy work covers our costs), and most importantly I DESPISE Linux with a passion. Queue here to flame me -->

At the first Startup School at Harvard someone asked Chris Sacca (who worked for Google at the time) what languages/platforms would help to get you bought by Google. His answer was that pretty much anything was okay... EXCEPT for .Net.

This is a load of shit.

1. ASP.NET MVC2, which is what they're trying to replace Webforms with, doesn't have any URL mangling issues given that the pathing is determined entirely by the developer's architecture.

2. Yeah, a view needs to contain a .ASPX file - this is an issue because?

3. You can't figure out how to edit some basic configuration settings, therefore the technology failed? Having consumed more than my fair share of RESTful services using .NET (the vast majority of my code samples on my blog are about using tools to do that), let me tell you that LINQ-to-XML and LINQ-to-JSON (JSON.NET) blow every other tool out of the water when it comes to parsing responses, with the exception of RestSharp, which is even better.

4. What the hell kind of bullshit is this? Because Microsoft offers me tools that integrate and often come with things I've already purchased I'm somehow a blind code-monkey slave to them? And there are plenty of developers who hated the .NET AJAX Control library and used jQuery or something else, myself among them. Microsoft isn't perfect, and there are exciting new non-.NET technologies out there that a lot of .NET devs try. Ask Rob Conery about his experience with Ruby, which I think is now his primary platform.

5.And what's wrong with VB.NET? That's how I broke into .NET until I did C++ programming in school and switched to C#. Yeah it's a verbose language compared to C# and it lets you play fast-and-loose with typing, but the fact that it's different from other tools doesn't make it inherently bad.

6. If you use DataSets poorly than I suppose that's true, just like how you can clutter PHP with inline MySQL. Shitty code can be written in any language.

7. What? You mean like one-click deployment from Visual Studio to an IIS7 instance? Or the ability to easily setup mirrors and scheduled backups in SQL Server? Or the ability to host services with virtually any protocol in IIS7? Try doing any of that in the LAMP stack and then feel free to tell me about how MSFT can't develop "simplified engineering solutions."

8. Some definitely do, but "all good devs?" Bullshit. Ask Jeff Atwood. The idea that enterprise platforms attracts more medicore programmers is laughable, and I'll point to the fact that JAVA and .NET developers are paid more by the free market on average than any other type of developer as evidence of that. You don't get paid well if you do shit work.

9. SharePoint is an utter POS; I hate using it as an end user, and I will be a sad panda the day I have to develop for it. No contest there.

I would think that the majority of startups aren't using MS products, but I understand that the ones that are might prefer not to talk about it for fear of ridicule by the hacker community.

I'm comfortable assuming that the YC startups are above the average, but that doesn't mean they aren't also affected by the demographic that would most benefit and be able to participate in the YC program. In no way am I implying that YC would select someone younger for admission over someone more qualified - just that the nature of the program self-selects.

In my case, I'm still young but having a toddler puts me in a similar situation to a typical older entrepreneur. It would be incredibly difficult for me to take an X month block away from my family or to uproot my family. And a $10K investment doesn't mean to me what it does to a college grad, because I can make that in a couple of bonuses or consulting gigs. The thing I miss most in a program like YC is the mentorship, but for me it's not worth the aforementioned hardship.

It's not that I'm not interested in new technologies, I do tinker, but it's just a matter of priorities. Given that, you're probably right that the "norm" would be lagging in terms of using the newest and coolest technology. I don't think that equates to generally worse companies, just less fashionable, to tie back to the original point.

http://www.quora.com/Given-the-lack-of-highly-successful-con... has some insights.