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I'm betting a huge chunk of cloud consumption is startups selling bags of dog food and AI-powered, IoT driven, blockchain-enabled subscription boxes online.

I think most companies have started moving to the 'cloud' in one way or another. Most of those startups aren't using Azure, that's for people who use C# or want to be integrated with Microsoft technologies, and this is what startups think of C#.

You know there are support groups out there that can help you with your grief about the immanent collapse of the .NET ecosystem.

Even Microsoft has orphaned you by going with HTML5 and JavaScript for Metro interfaces.

Java is the one. Going on about how nice Visual Studio is to work in is like telling us how nice the deck chairs were on the Titanic. It's too late, friend. Sure, .NET will live on in pockets of diehard iconclasts until finally even they--like Japanese soliders on deserted islands, thinking that WWII was still being fought--wake up to the fact that .NET is a dead man walking. Mono is dead. .NET is the Zune and Java is the iPod.

Can't you see the writing on the wall? Starting to open source .NET? That's a desperate Hail Mary ploy by MS to try to resurrect that corpse called .NET. It's dying and you need to get over your denial, and your anger and get on with the bargaining, depression and acceptance.

Remember that CEO who said CEO Friday: Why we don’t hire .NET programmers. Don't worry, you don't have to click on that link, I'll quote the relevant part for you:

...Everything, that is, but .NET.

Now let me clarify — .NET is a dandy language. It’s modern, it’s fancy, it’s got all the bells and whistles. And if you’re doing Windows Mobile 7 apps (which the stats suggest you aren’t), it’s your only choice. But choosing .NET is a choice, and whenever anybody does it, I can’t help but ask “why?”
Don’t get me wrong: .NET on your resume isn’t an instant showstopper. But it will definitely raise questions during the phone screen, for reasons that are best explained by simile:

Programming with .NET is like cooking in a McDonalds kitchen. It is full of amazing tools that automate absolutely everything. Just press the right button and follow the beeping lights, and you can churn out flawless 1.6 oz burgers faster than anybody else on the planet.

However, if you need to make a 1.7 oz burger, you simply can’t. There’s no button for it. The patties are pre-formed in the wrong size. They start out frozen so they can’t be smushed up and reformed, and the thawing machine is so tightly integrated with the cooking machine that there’s no way to intercept it between the two. A McDonalds kitchen makes exactly what’s on the McDonalds menu — and does so in an absolutely foolproof fashion. But it can’t go off the menu, and any attempt to bend the machine to your will just breaks it such that it needs to be sent back to the factory for repairs.

Instead, we look for a very different sort of person....

It meant you were akin to a script kiddy: Why we don't hire .NET coders

So you advocate for Java and then link to a blog post you obviously have not read because all those points apply equally to Java and in the article itself it points that out and it also links to Joel Spolsky's post on why the Java path is a bad idea. Advocating for .Net over Java or Java over .Net in terms of 'what language should I learn' is largely just blatant fanboyism.

Not entirely true. .net implementations on non windows operating systems (mono and .gnu are the big ones) have very little development or support where java actually is cross platform and well supported on all major OS's and many processors architectures. As for what is a better language outside of that it is pretty much a pissing contest.

It meant you were akin to a script kiddy: Why we don't hire .NET coders

So you advocate for Java and then link to a blog post you obviously have not read because all those points apply equally to Java and in the article itself it points that out and it also links to Joel Spolsky's post on why the Java path is a bad idea. Advocating for .Net over Java or Java over .Net in terms of 'what language should I learn' is largely just blatant fanboyism.

Dude, nobody gets hired anymore for knowing "basic programming". Also, in most enterprises that I have worked in, mobile apps are novelties. Nobody really bets the farm on a mobile app unless that's their entire business. Enterprises have bigger fish to fry than making another Angry Birds.
In NYC, having .NET on your resume was considered a black mark--because it meant you were a button pusher who didn't understand what was actually happening. It meant you were akin to a script kiddy: Why we don't hire .NET coders

We'd absolutely love to talk with you. Please see https://expensify.com/jobs, or write jobs@expensify.com -- we look for people *exactly* like you. Here's what's written on our site: https://www.expensify.com/jobs/need

Who We Need: Engineers, Entrepreneurs, Expert Generalists

We are always hiring talented generalist programmers. But if you really like titles, we're looking for:

- Salespeople (of the future!!)
- Fresh graduates (graduating soon)
- College dropouts (graduating never)
- Senior programmers (there's no such thing as overqualified)
- Mobile developers (iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone... even webOS)
- Systems programmers (back end performance and stability)
- Web developers (bring on the PHP!)
- Front-end engineers (jQuery, HTML, CSS, all that)
- Web designer (PSD, HTML, CSS)

We're not looking to stick cogs in a big machine.
We need people who can do pretty much everything and immediately learn how to do the rest. Before even thinking about the skills, we're looking for you to be:

An incredibly hard worker, even when it's not so fun.
There is a ton of work to do, and a lot of it downright sucks. After all - we do the sucky work so our customers won't need to. We need you to buck up and grind through random tasks, server logs, user emails, source code, and bug reports, without complaint or supervision, and come back asking for more.

A cool person to be with.
Not a crazy party animal, just someone we can trust, rely upon, hang out with, bounce ideas off of, and generally interact with in a positive way, both personally and professionally. In fact, this is one of the most stringent requirements we have: would you be fun to hang out with day and night on some remote, exotic beach? This isn't a rhetorical question, either: every year we take the company overseas for a month (on your own dime, sorry) and work incredibly hard while having a ton of fun. We've done Thailand, Mexico, India, Turkey, and the Philippines. Where do you want to go next?

Super talented, in a general way.
We're going to throw a ton of work at you of every possible sort, and you need that magic skill of being able to figure it out even if you have no idea where to start. Everyone helps with tech support, schmoozing at swank parties, hosting events, coming up with new and ever-more-ridiculous marketing stunts, etc. And if you code, you'll code everything: you might do mobile one day, front-end design, back-end optimization, low-level debugging, the works. This is not a monkey job - you're going to be a full participant in the process, and you need to bring your own unique blend of skills to the table.

Even more talented in a programming way.
You can instantly visualize solutions to problems big and small. Your code is always clean, well commented, has good nomenclature and indentation. You can switch on a dime between C++, PHP, Bash, Cron, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, Dwoo, SQL — not because you know them all, but because you're the sort of person who can just pick it up and figure it out. If you're this sort of person, you'll know what we mean. If not, then this position isn't for you.
Basically, we're looking for people who want to do amazing things with their careers, and who are searching for a way to get started or take the next incredible step. Does this sound like you? If so, read on...

Please check us out!

-david
Founder and CEO of Expensify
Follow us at http://twitter.com/expensify

We'd absolutely love to talk with you. Please see https://expensify.com/jobs, or write jobs@expensify.com -- we look for people *exactly* like you. Here's what's written on our site: https://www.expensify.com/jobs/need

Who We Need: Engineers, Entrepreneurs, Expert Generalists

We are always hiring talented generalist programmers. But if you really like titles, we're looking for:

- Salespeople (of the future!!)
- Fresh graduates (graduating soon)
- College dropouts (graduating never)
- Senior programmers (there's no such thing as overqualified)
- Mobile developers (iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone... even webOS)
- Systems programmers (back end performance and stability)
- Web developers (bring on the PHP!)
- Front-end engineers (jQuery, HTML, CSS, all that)
- Web designer (PSD, HTML, CSS)

We're not looking to stick cogs in a big machine.
We need people who can do pretty much everything and immediately learn how to do the rest. Before even thinking about the skills, we're looking for you to be:

An incredibly hard worker, even when it's not so fun.
There is a ton of work to do, and a lot of it downright sucks. After all - we do the sucky work so our customers won't need to. We need you to buck up and grind through random tasks, server logs, user emails, source code, and bug reports, without complaint or supervision, and come back asking for more.

A cool person to be with.
Not a crazy party animal, just someone we can trust, rely upon, hang out with, bounce ideas off of, and generally interact with in a positive way, both personally and professionally. In fact, this is one of the most stringent requirements we have: would you be fun to hang out with day and night on some remote, exotic beach? This isn't a rhetorical question, either: every year we take the company overseas for a month (on your own dime, sorry) and work incredibly hard while having a ton of fun. We've done Thailand, Mexico, India, Turkey, and the Philippines. Where do you want to go next?

Super talented, in a general way.
We're going to throw a ton of work at you of every possible sort, and you need that magic skill of being able to figure it out even if you have no idea where to start. Everyone helps with tech support, schmoozing at swank parties, hosting events, coming up with new and ever-more-ridiculous marketing stunts, etc. And if you code, you'll code everything: you might do mobile one day, front-end design, back-end optimization, low-level debugging, the works. This is not a monkey job - you're going to be a full participant in the process, and you need to bring your own unique blend of skills to the table.

Even more talented in a programming way.
You can instantly visualize solutions to problems big and small. Your code is always clean, well commented, has good nomenclature and indentation. You can switch on a dime between C++, PHP, Bash, Cron, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, Dwoo, SQL — not because you know them all, but because you're the sort of person who can just pick it up and figure it out. If you're this sort of person, you'll know what we mean. If not, then this position isn't for you.
Basically, we're looking for people who want to do amazing things with their careers, and who are searching for a way to get started or take the next incredible step. Does this sound like you? If so, read on...

Please check us out!

-david
Founder and CEO of Expensify
Follow us at http://twitter.com/expensify

Please read the comments as well as the mia copa at the top of the link you provided.

http://blog.expensify.com/2011/03/25/ceo-friday-why-we-dont-hire-net-programmers/

That you think .NET devs are script kiddies speaks volumes about you. I'm curious - what IDE do you think .NET developers should be using? The only thing that VS does for a .NET dev is run the command line for CLI when they click 'build'. Learning how to use CLI to compile from the command line takes 5 minutes to figure out, so there's that hurdle. What other "magic" is VS doing that makes .NET devs so stupid/lazy? Refactoring? Intelesence? Just because you're too ignorant to understand what an IDE is and what the .NET framework is doesn't mean can (without looking like a fool) go around and bash .NET. That you think that .NET devs are script kiddies makes me think that you don't know what .NET is or what a script kiddie is. I'll give you a hint: Script kiddies don't know how to write code - that's what makes them a script kidde.

But really, I think you've made your little story up there. Please give me the scenario where you would "take a .NET developer out of Visual Studio". Because it sounds a too me like you're fibbing.

No, we're just saying that choosing .NET is a dead end.

Recall a recent article "Why We Don't Hire .NET Programmers about a CEO who said he saw .NET on a resume as a black mark? Meaning, if your resume has .NET, it means they will consider NOT choosing you as a candidate. .NET developers have everything automated for them and end up with no deep understanding of what they are doing. Remove them from Visual Studio and they cannot fend for themselves.

There was a time where artists and programmers learnt in their bedroom. This was great because when they came into industry, it didn't take much to get them up to scratch as they had been doing it at home, just with less tools and no access to others. Now, in the game company I work at, we struggle to get people who know what we need.

I wonder how much of the recruitment problem is noise to signal ratio because of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGar7KC6Wiw

These kids go and do "games" courses, but aren't being taught what they need, because really, they don't want to know and the course is about bums on seats to make the education stats look good. I was on a "VR" course that was similar, but I dropped out and went into industry when our "professional 3D artist" didn't know what was skinning or IK and seamed to make everything out of spheres, and our programmers didn't know anything about real-time 3D. That was 10 years ago, not sure it's got better since.

I also wonder how much of the problem is no one learning "roll in the mud" C/C++ that is required. Those learning at uni, and even at home, seem to be learning only managed languages, so don't really understand computers. They don't get memory, data and instructions, only objects and garbage collection. Even if you are going to use someone else's engine, that still puts you at a disadvantage. Though of course, as long as the tech is "good enough" it starts becoming about game play and artwork....

I also wonder if this is limited to the game industry after last week's link to:
http://blog.expensify.com/2011/03/25/ceo-friday-why-we-dont-hire-net-programmers/

I think this kind of thing makes people angry because they know, deep down, there is at least an element of truth to it, but don't want to take the ivory tower blinkers off and see. Same kind of people who shout that programmers should do GUIs for everything, and there should be no CLI. Tough. For real time, you need to know what the computer is doing, even if you are using a virtual machine on top (in which case, you need to know what that is doing too, so it's actually making things more complex for you). For advanced computer use, you need to learn the CLI.

I think you and this guy should have a beer together.