Ask YC: Are there *any* startups using ASP.NET? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask YC: Are there any startups using ASP.NET?

#91

Post by DarrenStuart » Wed, Nov 21, 2007, 12:53 AM UTC

dcurtis wrote: post #88

boucher wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is used widely by Apple -- iTunes uses it as well, as does .Mac. It has a few users outside Apple, but as far as I know the number is incredibly small. I'm curious if anyone even thinks about it anymore, its been off the radar screen for a while I think. It is, however, very powerful.

Does anyone know of ANY other users of WebObjects? I can't seem to find any, anywhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebObjects has a list of sites using it. not sure how up to date it is but there is nothing special there.

Re: Ask YC: Are there any startups using ASP.NET?

#92

Post by theyoungceo » Wed, Nov 21, 2007, 1:09 AM UTC

I built my entire startup on .NET because I think the feature set is richer, Visual Studio is a great tool, and speed of development is faster. I've done extensive work in PHP and Java in the past and both were much harder to work with IMHO. I also have backend applicatiosn and mobile devices that run versions of the framework, so the entire solution lent itself very well to .NET. I happily paid windows server and SQL server 2005 licenses as well; money well spent.

Feel free to crucify me now, but remember that customers don't care what you made it in -- just that it works and brings value to them.

Re: Ask YC: Are there any startups using ASP.NET?

#93

Post by nkohari » Wed, Nov 21, 2007, 2:16 AM UTC

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #82

nkohari wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense, but you clearly have not used both languages. When you consider the platform in addition to the syntax, C# is absolutely nothing like C++. C# is managed, garbage collected, bytecode-based and JITted. Saying C++ and C# are similar is like saying that technically a unicycle and an airplane are the same because they can both help you get somewhere.

Everybody knows that Java is just C++ with the sharp edges taken off. C# is Microsoft's Java-killer. C# and C++ are directly related to each other. It's the same lineage. Where do you think you get the idea of constructors, interfaces, friends, volatile methods, etc? I understand that C# is managed, but how the runtime handles memory allocation to me just isn't the deal-killer you're making it out to be. There's lot'…

I didn't make the first comment. I just showed up to say that you were completely wrong in your retort. I also don't know exactly what you're arguing about, so I'll just let you ramble in peace. :)

Re: Ask YC: Are there any startups using ASP.NET?

#94

Post by andrewfong » Wed, Nov 21, 2007, 3:03 AM UTC

One of the student groups I did web work for back in college used a less-than-legit copy of ASP.NET. IMHO, it works well enough. I had limited *nix experience when I first started coding and Visual Studio lets you do things like drag and drop components and various HTML elements into a pseduo-WYSIWYG environment. The Windows Server environment also made it easy for us to train our non-tech people to remote login and do simple things like restart the server, fix typos on the site, and even execute basic SQL queries.

That said, I'm using RoR now. Fast, easy to learn, and an active community.

Re: Ask YC: Are there any startups using ASP.NET?

#95

Post by michaelneale » Wed, Nov 21, 2007, 4:18 AM UTC

theyoungceo wrote: post #92

I built my entire startup on .NET because I think the feature set is richer, Visual Studio is a great tool, and speed of development is faster. I've done extensive work in PHP and Java in the past and both were much harder to work with IMHO. I also have backend applicatiosn and mobile devices that run versions of the framework, so the entire solution lent itself very well to .NET. I happily paid windows server and SQ…

>Feel free to crucify me now, but remember that customers don't care what you made it in -- just that it works and brings value to them.

Fair comment.

Re: Ask YC: Are there any startups using ASP.NET?

#96

Post by jimbokun » Wed, Nov 21, 2007, 4:23 AM UTC

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #38

jimbokun wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you want something like an animated dancing baby that does different dances depending on your current stock portfolio and can sing out your RSS feeds in different languages..." Hey! How did you find out about my startup idea?

My lawyer says I'm forced to notify you that I own the rights to the dancing-baby-stock-singing-RSS-multilingual device. Of course, you're free to use a chicken.

How about a pigeon?

Re: Ask YC: Are there any startups using ASP.NET?

#97

Post by dshah » Wed, Nov 21, 2007, 4:23 AM UTC

My startup, HubSpot (http://www.HubSpot.com) is built on ASP.NET.

Though there are certainly irritations and annoyances, it has worked fine for us.

Re: Ask YC: Are there any startups using ASP.NET?

#98

Post by DanielBMarkham » Wed, Nov 21, 2007, 4:24 AM UTC

I have been looking around for partners for the last few months and ran across something very interesting.

Three guys, on three different occasions, said they wanted to go linux or nothing. Note that all of these conversations had nothing to do with the question of whether the business was viable or whether it could turn a profit. On a couple of occasions, we had some really good chemistry and the plan was looking hot. But they were convinced that ANY business idea that ran on .NET was a bad one.

I've never had somebody say it had to be .NET or nothing. I'm not sure what that means, but there it is. It doesn't make much sense to me from a business standpoint.

Re: Ask YC: Are there any startups using ASP.NET?

#99

Post by DanielBMarkham » Wed, Nov 21, 2007, 4:26 AM UTC

jimbokun wrote: post #96

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My lawyer says I'm forced to notify you that I own the rights to the dancing-baby-stock-singing-RSS-multilingual device. Of course, you're free to use a chicken.

How about a pigeon?

Sorry. My patent claims include all animals with an even number of letters.

Also things that rhyme with "slink"

Re: Ask YC: Are there any startups using ASP.NET?

#100

Post by mxh » Wed, Nov 21, 2007, 5:39 AM UTC

sadiq wrote: post #63

The biggest issue (and the reason i'm not using it) is vendor lock-in. If the next version of Windows Server requires something crazy or has a massive price hike, you either accept it or have to port your entire system. With Java, I don't have that problem. I can pick and choose the best platforms and technologies for the job. With ASP.NET you're pretty much stuck with the Microsoft ecosystem.

I agree with this sentiment, and would add a few (somewhat) related reasons.

a.) 'Planet Microsoft'. By this, I mean the gravitational pull all MSFT products seem to exert on one another, apparently by design and decree of the marketing department. With open-source stuff, it seems like I can mix-n-match components pretty freely. I can use Django on BSD, or Linux. With MySQL, or PostgreSQL. I can use its built-in templating, or not. With MSFT, it seems like I'd better be using Win2K3+SQL2K5+IIS6+ASP.NET or I'm taking my life in my hands. (And, when upgrade time comes, I better upgrade 'em all, or I'll have problems. And I better upgrade every system or they won't talk to each other.) Presumably MSFT could make its products more standalone, but prefers not to.

b.) Inevitable screwage. I believe MSFT's goal is to establish itself as an unavoidable presence in the IT business (ala the bad old days of DOS) and then use that position to demand money. For the moment, thanks to open standards, they can't do that. I'm not interested in helping them change that by using/endorsing their technology stack.

c.) MSFT MVPs. More generally, MSFT people. With all due respect to any Planet Microsoft hackers hereabouts, there is an enormous lack of perspective found in people who've only used MSFT tools; they tend to think 'One Microsoft Way' is a viable approach to building code, and not just an address. If you're reading this, and that offends you, I hereby acknowledge that there are exceptions, and you're probably one. I don't want to flame anyone, I just want to share an honest reason why I'd prefer to avoid the MSFT stack.