You're missing the point..NET will interop with exisiting apps, so there is no rewriting involved. Just keep running your existing apps.
For new apps, the sales pitch is language neutrality. I don't have to retrain my C++ coders, COBOL coders, etc. before I start my new project. They can continue to use the syntax and language idioms that they're already familiar with, and they can write web pages using their existing language skill--no need to learn ASP, JSP, Perl... Plus, new code that they write for.NET can be shared & reused later, even if my COBOL programmer retires to Bermuda and I have to hire a VB person to fill the vacancy.
Write Once Run Everywhere is a myth that very few people still believe, kinda like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Sounds great to non-technical decision makers, but people who write code for a living know better. Write any non-trivial app in Java, and your stuck on whatever app server platform you used to wrote it. Good luck moving a complex Java app written on BEA to WebSphere.
How is being locked in to a particular app server any better than being locked in to a particular OS?
That being said, what does.NET buy you? The big thing for non-technical decision makers is language-neutrality. You can program in COBOL, Smalltalk, C++, C#, VB,... whatever your current employees know. No retraining, no rip & replace, and Bob's COBOL implementation can be inherited by Jane's C++ class. And the runtime handles remoting for you, using SOAP, so you can even interop with those legacy apps that are running on those AS/400's and AIX boxes.
This is a much easier story to sell than the rewrite-everything-in-Java story.
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You're missing the point. .NET will interop with exisiting apps, so there is no rewriting involved. Just keep running your existing apps.
For new apps, the sales pitch is language neutrality. I don't have to retrain my C++ coders, COBOL coders, etc. before I start my new project. They can continue to use the syntax and language idioms that they're already familiar with, and they can write web pages using their existing language skill--no need to learn ASP, JSP, Perl ... Plus, new code that they write for .NET can be shared & reused later, even if my COBOL programmer retires to Bermuda and I have to hire a VB person to fill the vacancy.
Write Once Run Everywhere is a myth that very few people still believe, kinda like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Sounds great to non-technical decision makers, but people who write code for a living know better. Write any non-trivial app in Java, and your stuck on whatever app server platform you used to wrote it. Good luck moving a complex Java app written on BEA to WebSphere. How is being locked in to a particular app server any better than being locked in to a particular OS? That being said, what does .NET buy you? The big thing for non-technical decision makers is language-neutrality. You can program in COBOL, Smalltalk, C++, C#, VB, ... whatever your current employees know. No retraining, no rip & replace, and Bob's COBOL implementation can be inherited by Jane's C++ class. And the runtime handles remoting for you, using SOAP, so you can even interop with those legacy apps that are running on those AS/400's and AIX boxes.
This is a much easier story to sell than the rewrite-everything-in-Java story.