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Like other highly successful products of Microsoft (e.g. Windows, Microsoft 365), I get the feeling that C# and .NET developers are a largely "silent majority"

Like other highly successful products of Microsoft (e.g. Windows, Microsoft 365), I get the feeling that C# and .NET developers are a largely "silent majority" who may not be getting posted on or talking as much on places like HN compared to developers of alternative options, but this is mostly because they're just getting stuff done with minimal fuss or issue. I also get the sense that in the U.S. because Java was around for a bit before .NET, it got a head start in terms of market penetration and embedded in a lot of places, so when .NET arrived, even if it was better in some regards, it wasn't enough to justify throwing away investment that had already occurred in Java. As Java was overall more used in the U.S. hiring Java developers was easier, further cementing Java as more popular over .NET. Meanwhile in other places in the world where there had been less Java investment before the arrival of .NET, it is much more prominent as is the available hiring pool of .NET developers. As someone who's been using C# for 12 years now, I have always felt incredibly productive with it and even though I never especially felt the experience was bad, it seems to somehow continuously provide some pretty great quality of life improvements. As with any tool, it's not appropriate for certain kinds of problems, but outside of things like operating system/driver programming or super performance critical code, it is almost always a perfectly fine solution and you won't have any issue hiring developers for it going forward.

subsection1h 3y ago
> C# and .NET developers are a largely "silent majority" who may not be getting posted on or talking as much on places like HN compared to developers of alternative options, but this is mostly because they're just getting stuff done with minimal fuss or issue. Or maybe C# and .NET developers are people who learned to program solely to earn a paycheck and they don't chat about programming because they're not computing enthusiasts, which is my conclusion based on the fact that all but one of the C# developers I've interacted with in person are Windows users who have as much experience with other operating systems as one would expect from people who aren't computing enthusiasts.
- tasuki 3y ago
  Harsh! I have similar experiences/feelings.
- jonathanlydall 3y ago
  It sounds like you’re not denying that Java and C# are very popular and arguably the “work horse” languages (although I expect Python is overall more used, even if it is used on very large projects where I feel it’s very often a poor choice). As with any “typical workhorse” consumers, you land up with lots who are not necessarily passionate about their day job. Perhaps you’re right it’s more common that C# developers are dispassionate, but I don’t think it means that there isn’t a pretty large absolute number of passionate users, even if the proportion may be low. Look at Windows, its number of users dwarfs everything else, I fully expect that it has a much much higher percentage of dispassionate users compared to any other operating system, but it’s not to say that there aren’t a lot of passionate users of Windows. My point is that even if it is indeed true that C# has a very high percentage of dispassionate developer, it really doesn’t mean or say much, aside from the fact that it’s used a lot. Overall, I thoroughly enjoy using Windows and C# and I’m not going to switch to Linux or macOS for reasons like “wanting to stand out” or “not be associated with dispassionate computer users”, to me it would be like cutting off my nose to spite my face. Windows and C# have for a very long time been super reliable for me, they really have delivered on “just works” over and over, I haven’t lost any appreciable time to things not working. I tried Linux desktops a while back and concluded that, outside of people who just need a browser, it’s generally for people who enjoy tinkering with it, while I more prefer that my OS can just play the game I want, or just use the tool I need without needing to spend time tweaking things for it to work. As for macOS, as a power user, I feel it’s firstly not worth the premium price tag difference, and secondly I can’t see it being worth my having to give up my Windows muscle memory. Admittedly, the battery life is probably unmatched, but I have never found myself wishing that I had more battery life than I get on my business class Dells.
  - aragilar 3y ago
    Windows usage has steadily been decreasing, and is now lower than android: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share#monthly-201501-202403 https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share#monthly-201501-20... It's also worth realising you've self-selected for tools that work on Windows (e.g. I rarely see Windows simply because the tools I use require UNIX). I don't see Windows going away any time soon (simply because Apple is too expensive), but the rise of mobile devices (e.g. tablets) which cover the needs of basic users mean that it's going to be relegated at some point (as old laptops are replaced by other devices) to being a desktop OS for gamers and business users who require native Windows software (because the web equivalent is too slow/bloated). I expect cheap Chromebooks to replace cheap Windows laptops (as long as Google doesn't screw that up).

subsection1h 3y ago

> C# and .NET developers are a largely "silent majority" who may not be getting posted on or talking as much on places like HN compared to developers of alternative options, but this is mostly because they're just getting stuff done with minimal fuss or issue. Or maybe C# and .NET developers are people who learned to program solely to earn a paycheck and they don't chat about programming because they're not computing enthusiasts, which is my conclusion based on the fact that all but one of the C# developers I've interacted with in person are Windows users who have as much experience with other operating systems as one would expect from people who aren't computing enthusiasts.

tasuki 3y ago
Harsh! I have similar experiences/feelings.
jonathanlydall 3y ago
It sounds like you’re not denying that Java and C# are very popular and arguably the “work horse” languages (although I expect Python is overall more used, even if it is used on very large projects where I feel it’s very often a poor choice). As with any “typical workhorse” consumers, you land up with lots who are not necessarily passionate about their day job. Perhaps you’re right it’s more common that C# developers are dispassionate, but I don’t think it means that there isn’t a pretty large absolute number of passionate users, even if the proportion may be low. Look at Windows, its number of users dwarfs everything else, I fully expect that it has a much much higher percentage of dispassionate users compared to any other operating system, but it’s not to say that there aren’t a lot of passionate users of Windows. My point is that even if it is indeed true that C# has a very high percentage of dispassionate developer, it really doesn’t mean or say much, aside from the fact that it’s used a lot. Overall, I thoroughly enjoy using Windows and C# and I’m not going to switch to Linux or macOS for reasons like “wanting to stand out” or “not be associated with dispassionate computer users”, to me it would be like cutting off my nose to spite my face. Windows and C# have for a very long time been super reliable for me, they really have delivered on “just works” over and over, I haven’t lost any appreciable time to things not working. I tried Linux desktops a while back and concluded that, outside of people who just need a browser, it’s generally for people who enjoy tinkering with it, while I more prefer that my OS can just play the game I want, or just use the tool I need without needing to spend time tweaking things for it to work. As for macOS, as a power user, I feel it’s firstly not worth the premium price tag difference, and secondly I can’t see it being worth my having to give up my Windows muscle memory. Admittedly, the battery life is probably unmatched, but I have never found myself wishing that I had more battery life than I get on my business class Dells.
- aragilar 3y ago
  Windows usage has steadily been decreasing, and is now lower than android: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share#monthly-201501-202403 https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share#monthly-201501-20... It's also worth realising you've self-selected for tools that work on Windows (e.g. I rarely see Windows simply because the tools I use require UNIX). I don't see Windows going away any time soon (simply because Apple is too expensive), but the rise of mobile devices (e.g. tablets) which cover the needs of basic users mean that it's going to be relegated at some point (as old laptops are replaced by other devices) to being a desktop OS for gamers and business users who require native Windows software (because the web equivalent is too slow/bloated). I expect cheap Chromebooks to replace cheap Windows laptops (as long as Google doesn't screw that up).