IMO, from my experience with cross-platform .NET stuff, ServiceStack probably is your best choice. And yeah, it costs money. But seriously, a grand is nothing compared to, like, your salaries, if it will improve your development and workflow. If it won't, and you're making arguments to that end, then don't do it - and that's valid too, your boss would be right to disagree with you.
Sometimes open source is the wrong answer for an organization. You may not like that, but that's when you quit (which is not a big deal).
ServiceStack might be the best thing mankind built. I cannot use it.
1) I'm talking about a pet project. Not 20% as in one day a week. I'm working normally, would love to see a way to make this (a port) happen in the evenings. $50 would be more than I would like to spend here, because it's my own money and the end result - even if successful - is probably a 'Huh? Interesting..' and that's that. It would be for my own amusement.
2) To see if it will improve my workflow I'd need to invest (time) in it first. Since I don't have a use case for SS (see 1) I see no point doing that in the moment. I learn new stuff every day, the queue is basically endless. SS could've jumped to the top if it would've been a viable option. So I'm not making the case that it won't improve my workflow: I plainly don't know anything about it.
3) Yes, my salary is more than a grand / month. But that's a crappy metric. It certainly feels as if lots of people here make $100+ a year, the SF crowd. Right, if you basically cost that much in 4 days then this might be something to argue. But that scale changes rapidly with smaller salaries.
4) Even if we agree that $ 1000 (per nose) is nothing, who's going to spend that? No clue how this works in other companies, but here you have to make a case, get X people from management to agree. Why would they? "I would be more productive"? Without snark, I'd really like to see a case for a purchase like this that could work in my scenario. Here's the rundown again, that's what you'd face: "Replace a free and well-understood MS technology in a shop run by MS fanboys with an open-source stack that no one knows a thing about for thousands of dollars, so that the one developer with his crazy interest in non-Windows environments can rip WCF out of our stable and mature product to - maybe - port it to Linux, because he'd consider that cool". No offense, not trying to attack you here - I just want to make it blatantly clear that 'random' comments a la 'that money is nothing' are - if not wrong in general - not useful here.
5) Quitting can be a big deal. It would be in my case. Circumstances, details matter.
> Even if we agree that $ 1000 (per nose) is nothing, who's going to spend that? No clue how this works in other companies, but here you have to make a case, get X people from management to agree. Why would they? "I would be more productive"? Without snark, I'd really like to see a case for a purchase like this that could work in my scenario.
From what you're saying, and I'm not saying this to rip on you: I doubt one exists, and it doesn't sound, from your description, like making one would be an ethical maneuver anyway. I don't work in Microsoft-heavy shops because I don't enjoy it, but I don't try to change them to suit me because it would not be in the company's best interests and I am mature enough to understand that. (If asked, because I've been hit up by decision-makers in Microsoft shops before, I'll explain my position, but that's always from the outside.) I feel you when you say that your circumstances preclude finding a better fit, but that doesn't mean that introducing additional risk is the right thing for the employer who pays you to work effectively on their behalf.
Changing established shops is at best difficult and comes with little payoff unless you own the damn thing, and should be done with the best interests of the org in mind--that's what they're paying you for. If you can't get what you feel like you need and what you want doesn't outweigh the opportunity costs, you should leave, because it's better for all involved.
(A grand a year really is nothing, though. Software developers have broken their brains when it comes to cost structures. That's in the ballpark for the amortized cost of a cubicle, which can realize way less value for the company than the right piece of software. Or, you know--the Windows Server CALs that are the actual cost of WCF.)
Sometimes open source is the wrong answer for an organization. You may not like that, but that's when you quit (which is not a big deal).