Part of my company‘s job is to create tailored software for clients. They manage to deliver 5–6 a year and producing each one takes between 200–500 days. For the last 2 years they have developed around 80% using the .Net platform and the remaining 20% using Java. Last year I worked for 1 month with a .Net team trying to re-architect their software, but I gave up. Those guys didn‘t know what a Singleton was, nor a framework, nor even a package ! And because I didn‘t know anything about .Net (and still don‘t) I moved to do other things.

The other day I was talking to one of the commercial guys and I asked him why my company wasn‘t putting any effort in trying to do more Java. The answer was quick and precise: “We realized that .Net software is 40% cheaper than Java“ (understand faster to develop for the same price).

I was about to argue, bring the technical side, the big mistakes that I spotted during my little experience with .Net, talk about the Java community, the open source framework, the well designed architecture I‘ve worked with and so on. When I realized that he was a commercial guy, wearing a suit and a tie, I had the divine inspiration that made me reply:

“God created the universe, the planet and Man in just 7 days. And you can see the mess. Imagine if he had 40% more time to think about it, life would be better!”

We both laughed… and I hope you‘ll laugh too ;o)