We are in web era standalone applications are almost gone everyone wants their internet application to run inside browser, programming languages like Ruby, Python and scala are becoming more and more mainstream.
Sometimes I wonder what these programming language offer which make them top choice of IT companies, if I plan to become a freelance web developer is it worth learning C# or Java. I read beginner's book for both of them, but to master any of them require some time investment.
Truthfully, it doesn't matter. Lots companies use one another, some or even all (depending on the size of the organization). You'll find work no matter which one you pick.
if I plan to become a freelance web developer is it worth learning C# or Java
Sure, it's always good to know at least a little about it, especially if you are going to be a contractor. You never know when something might come up.
The real truth is that you'll get work eventually based on who you are and not what languages you know (although that can help). You'll start to get a reputation and people will seek that out.
Heck you want to talk about learning obsolete languages. Sometimes those are the people who get paid the most, because no one else knows them, and will never be out of work in the foreseeable future. I'm not saying this is true all the time, but I know several people who are experts in "legacy technologies" and make a killing because the several consulting firms (not saying all) hire people just out of college who think knowing C means they got one on there last term paper in college. For the record I don't mean that C is by any means obsolete. I just needed something to make a joke on :)
Depends completly on what you want to do.
More mainstream web-apps I would say C#. For heavier business apps I would say Java.
More info is needed to give a good answer. Isn't this community wiki btw?
standalone applications are almost gone
Far from it.
if I plan to become a freelance web developer is it worth learning C# or Java.
C# and Java are definitely still relevant web languages. It's true that a lot of rich client side applications are being written in Javascript these days, but you still usually need a server at the other end to feed the data to the client. The server is often written in C# or Java (with PHP being another popular alternative).
Yes. As in, learn both. Learn all 5 you mentioned. Yes, corporations and HR departments may think they need a "Java guru", or a "C# Wizard", but the good companies are looking for people who know how to program, and know how to do it well. If you limit yourself to a single language, you don't become an expert on programming, you simply become an expert on an API. Learn many languages, learn what makes each good/bad, and learn which ones are better suited to particular problems. Java and C# are good places to start because both have good job markets, but don't limit yourself. Learn as many as possible, and how to move among them at will. Your future self will thank you for it.
An hour ago I've asked a similar question. You may find the answers interesting.
At the time of writing Java is currently number 1 on the Tiobe Programming Index and C# is 6th, so of course they are still relevant.
Learn C# first. It has a good user experience for both web and windows programming (very similar). Of course my opinion is not unbiased! :) I've just never seen a Java equivalent of WPF and I really like WPF!
if you plan to become a freelance web developer, your best chance is PHP.
My background - Soft Eng graduate. Did projects in C# (The course focussed mainly on Java and C but I really enjoyed C#)
What I found about C# is its great for corporate type projects. It can quickly become really bloated and horrible, one application was using 800mb of RAM. This isn't a reflection on the framework itself but rather the people doing the system. What I loved about it was that MS were always updating it with things such as CCR and DSS...
Flash forward 18 months. I move jobs and get a mac... no C#. So I go back to the realm of java, use some scala and ruby. I'm now an apache junky. If you wanna do anything 'cool' or crazy you really need to use things such as lucene, solr, mahout. Therefore you need to know java, c or some sort of compiled language.
If you want to be a corporate developer (Who earns lots of cash!) C# is amazing.
It's certainly worth learning either or both of those languages, along with those others you mentioned. Learning a new language is not really very hard. Several times I have learned a new language solely for the current job.
However, it sounds like you really don't want to learn either of those languages, and want to learn one of the others. If that's so, don't force yourself. You can do plenty of good work in the languages you seem to be gravitating toward. There's no one best language; there's plenty of room for whatever you want to do. Heck, people still make a living coding exclusively in COBOL.
Just choose the language that you like best and that you think you can get a job with. It really depends on your personal circumstances and preferences.
learning several languages is less time consuming, than learning several Frameworks!
I would recommend you to get yourself a PHP or better C or C++ book for starters. When you know the basics of the language including pointers and arrays, you can go ahead and look at java. start to use eclipse(or netbeans) as an IDE and do some stuff.
1-2 months later look at c# and visual studio, you will most likely not switch back..