AJAX, Echo, .NET - What Impact Have They Had?

BjB asks: "We've talked about platform neutral frameworks for years, but with the recent story about AJAX threatening the desktop, it made me think about the hype around two frameworks that were supposed to bring applications to the browser: Microsoft .NET and the Java competitor Echo framework. Both technologies boast that you can write a desktop application that can also easily be exported as an identical web-based application. I know a lot of developers hailed the .NET framework as a major innovation and jumped on board. The Echo framework was the counter-attack that leveled the field. Now, over two years later, I don't think I've ever seen anything that leverages either one? Was this a short lived battle with nobody reaping the rewards, or has it actually made some in-roads?"

Comments

Re:.net gripes

[Rolan]

...but where's my perl, python and ruby dot net (and I don't mean editor support)?

Right under your nose, if you bother to look:
http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/NET Perl and (experimental)Python
http://www.saltypickle.com/rubydotnet/Ruby/.NET compatability
http://www.zope.org/Members/Brian/PythonNetPython
http://www.ironpython.com/Python, again....