I envy Czech .NET developers their Microsoft support

I don’t believe .NET is that much better, simpler or cheaper than Java. Yet given the number of Czech articles and blogs about .NET, especially on vyvojar.cz, it feels like we Java developers missed the train. Whether one technology is better in some respect hardly matters. The limiting factor is the community around it.

If a community is large enough, there’s a fair chance it will find individuals, or a group of them, who will enrich it. Outside influences can strengthen a community substantially and, in turn, help it grow.

Whenever I asked myself why Java got less coverage than .NET, two possible reasons came to mind. Either there are far fewer Java developers, and our community is too small to produce enough people who can contribute, or our community gets much less outside support than the one around .NET.

I’m convinced the Java community is at least comparable in size to the .NET community, if it isn’t larger. By elimination that leaves outside influences. It isn’t hard to name the one behind the .NET community. It’s Microsoft itself, or its Czech office in our case.

Sun should play the same role for Java developers as Microsoft does for .NET, especially through its Czech office. It saddens me to think of the lofty promises about supporting the developer community at Sun Tech Days. Incidentally, that was the only sizeable event, and it was about a year ago.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Sun CZ has done practically nothing for us developers. It offers training and certification, but try finding localized material about Java. It’s a shame. With a little more effort, our community could have grown to its own benefit and Sun’s. As it stands, I envy Czech .NET developers their Microsoft CZ.

Related responses

• (14 October 2004, Michal’s notebook) “I envy Czech .NET developers their Microsoft support”
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