Goodby Java, Hello Mono

Regarding Infoworld's "Goodby Mono, hello Java?". It's weird that anybody would assume the reason Java hasn't been more successful as a stand-alone application framework is because of its licensing restrictions. The thought's never crossed my mind. Lots of vendors distribute Java based software and simply require that the consumer install a JRE or they bundle one with their application.

The real reason Mono's been so successful and Java's floundered is because of the chaos within the Java framework, and the lack of "turn-key" IDE/RAD environments that are on par with Visual Studio. I know that I can use the latest JDK and Eclipse to create a great application--and I can package and deploy it without much hardship to the consumer. But I've had to earn that ability over the past 10 years--and the knowledge and experience is not available to a majority of the world's developers. The Visual Studio crowd is vast, and they're armed with some pretty sophisticated tools. They've got a large community of tools, information, and support. And while I happen to find those tools repulsive, there are countless thousands of developers that are pretty darned productive with them. And Mono allows them to be just as productive while quickly and easily deploying to Linux as well as Windows.