Sure, it beats Java, but the VM is worse for running other languages, and that's where .NET loses. F# tries to be nice, but reified generics are more of a limit

Sure, it beats Java, but the VM is worse for running other languages, and that's where .NET loses. F# tries to be nice, but reified generics are more of a limitation than help in that world. In JVM land, now Java just hands you some specific well tested libraries: You write business code with Scala or Clojure, which I'd pick over C# by about as much as I'd pick C# over Java 7. That said, I have far more faith in Microsoft improving their tooling than I have about Oracle doing the same: It's just that Oracle has to carry a far smaller weight, because the good JVM languages aren't even theirs.