I believe that most people blend C# and .NET together. C# is a standardized language. .NET is a closed platform. Anyone can implement C# the language. You c

I believe that most people blend C# and .NET together. C# is a standardized language. .NET is a closed platform. Anyone can implement C# the language. You can write a compiler that outputs Java byte code if you really want. But a language isn't that useful without a standard set of libraries (or platform). And I believe that is where you run into issues. Novell has made a clean room implementation with Mono. And many people believe (myself included) that Microsoft would be doing itself more harm than good to go after Novell's clean room implementation of some of the core System libraries. But there is no guarantee that someday they won't do it. Other than the fact that there is no money in it.