Why has not .NET been spread to other platforms like java has been

[Tony Johansson]

Hello!

I know that .NET are available for other platforms but they aren't supported
by Microsoft, and they
provide only a minor subset of the total range of feature that .NET can
offer.

So my question is still relevant why has not the .NET been spread to fully
support all the feature that exist in .NET
like the Java has been. ?

I assume it might depends on that .NET is much more complicated to fully
support to other plattform and OS
then the java.

//Tony

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

I know that .NET are available for other platforms but they aren't supported
by Microsoft, and they
provide only a minor subset of the total range of feature that .NET can
offer.

Mono is a "subset", but I don't think "minor subset" is accurate. It
is somewhere between 90% and 99% depending on versions.

So my question is still relevant why has not the .NET been spread to fully
support all the feature that exist in .NET
like the Java has been. ?

MS has never been that interested in non-MS OS'es.

If you look at MS product portfolio: Windows, Office, IE, .NET,
Visual Studio, IIS, SQLServer, Exchange, SharePoint etc. they
are almost all Windows only (occasionally a product get ported
to MacOS X and that is it).

Business strategy.

I assume it might depends on that .NET is much more complicated to fully
support to other plattform and OS
then the java.

There are some features that are tightly coupled with
Windows.

Arne

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

[...]
I assume it might depends on that .NET is much more complicated to fully
support to other plattform and OS
then the java.

Bad assumption.

Probably a correct assumption.

Given how many problems Mono has had implemented some
features.

System.Windows.Forms and System.EnterpriseServices being
primary examples.

Only Microsoft can tell you why there hasn't been an interest or effort
to support .NET on a broad range of other platforms. But it's useful to
keep in mind that the goals of Sun and Microsoft are not the same.

Sun never had massive market share. For them, making it easier for
developers to write software that can then be ported over to their own
OS (Solaris) was considered an important element in increasing market
share.

When Java was invented SUN's marketshare in the server marked
was pretty big.

On the other hand, Microsoft already had the vast bulk of developers
coding for their platform.

Even today that is only true for the desktop market.

Arne