66. Predictable Upgrade Cycle

The planned release schedule between major versions of the JDK is 18 months. For C# its not clear, its even murkier for the ECMA standard. For example, the next version of C# will include generics, however it changes some details of the CLI which ultimately means the ECMA standard needs to be updated. The schedule when this will happen is not clear. Even worse, based on past experience, its not clear if Microsoft will continue to support today's technologies (i.e. VB6, DNA).

67. Better Support for Domain Specific Languages

Extensible java parser frameworks like JSE, JacO, Polyglot aid in the creation of extensions to Java to make it easier to build domain specific languages. These frameworks allow a non compiler expert to easily create new language constructs.

68. Security in Java is Proven and Peer reviewed.

Java has proven itself for many years to be an extremely secure environment, unlike Microsoft where its typical to read about viruses and security alerts on a weekly basis.

Microsoft executives have even warned that releasing the source code for Windows would reveal even more security holes. In contrast. Java has been available in source code form for the peer review for years, yet you rarely hear about java security failures.

When was the last time you heard of a Java virus. Like never. That's because Java was designed foremost with security in mind. What good is a platform that cannot guarantee the integrity of the system and in turn acts as a petrie dish for growing and ditributing viruses? Microsoft has a rich history of platform viruses - at last count in May of 2000 there were over 52,000+ Microsoft-related platform viruses, trojan horses and other security threats. In the article, Contagion : Why Our Dependency On Microsoft Makes Us Susceptible (http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2000/05/22/security.html), one of the foremost experts on security, Gene Spafford, lists platforms and the numbers of threats in each - Microsoft is securely in first place - probably forever. More recently one of the key centerpieces of the .Net platform, the IIS server, was sited for its repeatedly bad security - and remarkably Gartner suggested that customers examine other solutions. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/21853.html)

69. Core API Source Code Availability

The source code for the Java runtime enviroment is availabe for everyone to examine. In contrast, its a violation of the EULA agreement to decompile for study the libraries of the .NET SDK.

Knowing how a particular API does its work is vitally important in any development environment.

70. Environmentally Friendly

.NET is dependent on MDAC 2.7 and IE6. That's even if you don't use any of these features, particularly IE6 on a server. Expect more of these dependencies with every server pack upgrade. Java is less dependendent on the intricacies of the current service pack.