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Building a Startup - Defending .NET

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Re: Building a Startup - Defending .NET

#2

Post by latch »

Same as most other posts defending one technology choice versus others. It's what I know best...I like the tools...can't we all get along...

The only interesting point is also the vaguest...The AI that's already available in .NET (and, by the way it's stated, apparently not in others).

I also have to counterpoint that ASP.NET MVC is "conceptually" the same as Rails/Django. Conceptual similarities are pretty meaningless. My RC plane is conceptually similar to a fighter jet because it relies on the same four forces. Actual coding-wise, ASP.NET MVC is closer to WebForms than Rails.

Re: Building a Startup - Defending .NET

#5

Post by vyrotek »

We've had our share of surprised faces when we told people our company is based on .Net as well. There were a lot of reasons for us to use the Microsoft stack. One of them was also existing expertise. My CoFounder and I previously worked as C# developers for years before working on IActionable.com full-time. And yes, Visual Studio is that awesome.

"AppHarbor - It's Heroku for .NET. You simply can't beat it."

I agree with most things in the article except for this. Its definitely my personal opinion, but I don't think AppHarbor is quite 'there' yet for a lot of companies. At least it wasn't for our company's specific needs. The .Net community is very unique and has very different expectations from other service providers. We typically eat what Microsoft feeds us and trust it. Microsoft is definitely putting a lot of weight behind Azure and it made sense for us to use their platform. I saw the level of support behind Azure first hand when our company was invited to Redmond to meet the dev teams as part of an early adopter program.

Re: Building a Startup - Defending .NET

#6

Post by tansey »

latch wrote: post #2

Same as most other posts defending one technology choice versus others. It's what I know best...I like the tools...can't we all get along... The only interesting point is also the vaguest...The AI that's already available in .NET (and, by the way it's stated, apparently not in others). I also have to counterpoint that ASP.NET MVC is "conceptually" the same as Rails/Django. Conceptual similarities are pretty meaningle…

> Actual coding-wise, ASP.NET MVC is closer to WebForms than Rails.

How so?

I've never worked with WebForms, but I have done a few Rails projects. I don't see any real differences except for ActiveRecord, which does have a .NET port: http://www.castleproject.org/activerecord/

Also, I wasn't trying to start a fight (really!). I just think that more .NET hackers should be motivated to do startups. IMHO, I think this is the year that .NET startups begin to take off. All the pieces are in place, it's just about motivating the community.

Re: Building a Startup - Defending .NET

#7

Post by vyrotek »

latch wrote: post #2

Same as most other posts defending one technology choice versus others. It's what I know best...I like the tools...can't we all get along... The only interesting point is also the vaguest...The AI that's already available in .NET (and, by the way it's stated, apparently not in others). I also have to counterpoint that ASP.NET MVC is "conceptually" the same as Rails/Django. Conceptual similarities are pretty meaningle…

I wish I could understand why you feel Asp.Net MVC is closer to WebForms than Rails. Unfortunately I have barely any Rails experience. But as a developer who did WebForms for years and made the switch to MVC, I will never go back.

Edit - I also see you're the founder of badg.ly? I remember checking out your site not too long ago. We seem to be some-what in the same space with our startup http://www.IActionable.com. I'd love to learn more about how that's going for you.

Re: Building a Startup - Defending .NET

#8

Post by jschrf »

.NET is great. It's fast, clean, and the framework libs are incredibly good. C#, IronPython, and F# are amazing.

I still haven't found an IDE that compares to VS in terms of productivity and usability.

Despite all the things going for it, it's decidely un-trendy and people hate on it. I'm guessing it's primarily because it's from Microsoft.

Software trends are silly.

Re: Building a Startup - Defending .NET

#9

Post by nickbp »

As far as I can tell the author's reasons for deciding to use C# can be summed up as "I'm used to it from previous work, and some useful libraries related to my project are available."

Those are perfectly valid reasons, but they aren't really much use to anyone who doesn't share those circumstances, and don't really have anything to do with upsides and downsides of the language itself. That would have been far more relevant to us outsiders.

Also, "I'm buying a MBP" translates to "I'm serious about startups"? Who says image isn't everything? Besides, everyone knows serious hackers use IBM-era Thinkpads!

Re: Building a Startup - Defending .NET

#10

Post by tansey »

latch wrote: post #3

When did hacker become a synonym for programmer?

Fair enough. I changed the link to the "don't hire .NET programmers" article.

I stand by the rest of the references, though. All the guys I mention in my last point are as much hackers as anyone I've ever met or worked with.

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