> They aren't seen as "hacker's languages" but "ewww yuck big bank enterprise-y languages".
They're seen as "Languages this evil SOB of a company owns and who knows if it could decide to patent something and enforce it against me".
As in, patent law is complex. Guarantees sound more like marketing of the used-car-dealer and sawdust-transmission variety than actual known-good documents like the GPL, which is, after all, founded on copyright law. Copyright law seems simpler: You own specific files, not abstract hand-wavey ideas. You can't use copyright law to go after someone for the unforgivable sin of coming up with the same idea a bit after, or a bit before, you did.
(Edited to add: Before you accuse me of FUD, tell me how I could know I'm not spreading FUD without becoming an IP law expert first.)
So:
.Net is Microsoft's ecosystem.
Java is Oracle's ecosystem.
Which company is less likely to find a loophole in whatever guarantee they've pledged and use it to squash me like a gnat?
I'd agree with this too; at least to an extent -- especially given Oracle's recent actions wrt. to Android/Java.
Now that you mention Intellectual Property, I wonder.... Does the fact that .NET is used in big enterprises and big enterprises tend to have strict employee side-work exclusion clauses or "we own everything you do" clauses also play a part in slowing down the .NET OSS ecosystem?
They're seen as "Languages this evil SOB of a company owns and who knows if it could decide to patent something and enforce it against me".
As in, patent law is complex. Guarantees sound more like marketing of the used-car-dealer and sawdust-transmission variety than actual known-good documents like the GPL, which is, after all, founded on copyright law. Copyright law seems simpler: You own specific files, not abstract hand-wavey ideas. You can't use copyright law to go after someone for the unforgivable sin of coming up with the same idea a bit after, or a bit before, you did.
(Edited to add: Before you accuse me of FUD, tell me how I could know I'm not spreading FUD without becoming an IP law expert first.)
So:
.Net is Microsoft's ecosystem.
Java is Oracle's ecosystem.
Which company is less likely to find a loophole in whatever guarantee they've pledged and use it to squash me like a gnat?