.NET vs J2EE middleware?

Question

Can someone provide a comparison of the middleware difference (pros/cons) of .NET vs J2EE.

If not, at least provide a useful link for me to read to is concise.

Answer 1

Very broad question, and hard to cover. But here are some papers (more or less recent, more or less biased) that you might still find interesting:

• Comparing Microsoft .NET and IBM WebSphere/J2EE (this is more a .NET vs IBM WebSphere comparison "sponsored" by Microsoft)
• IBM Response "Comparing Microsoft .NET and IBM WebSphere/J2EE"
• On The Relative Advantages of Teaching Web Services in J2EE vs. .NET
• J2EE vs. Microsoft .NET - History and Comparison
• J2EE vs. Microsoft.NET - A comparison of building XML-based web services

Maybe you should add some details about your context for more specific answers.

Answer 2

It depends on your particular circumstances.

I don't pretend to have an exact answer, because there isn't one, but here are some of my thoughts and experiences. (Upfront, I'm primarily a .NET developer, but I do work in Java on occassion)

I'll summarize a bit upfront - If you go .NET you're getting a tight, integrated stack that's really easy to use and solves 80% of you issues really efficiently, but you pay for the convenience, and solving some of the edge cases can be an issue. Going Java gives you flexibility, but you pay for that in time and complexity, but it is basically free.

Platforms First out the box, Java is supported natively on lot more platforms, BUT C# is not purely Windows. The Mono project has C# running on Linux and Mac. If you're doing phone development you can use it on iPhone (MonoTouch) and shortly Android as well (MonoDroid)

The languages There is very little doubt to me that C# is the more modern and elegant language, but that doesn't make Java bad. It's still way better than trying to do things in C++ ...

Tools Visual Studio has a lot of cool stuff, so does Eclipse. I find it's a lot quicker to get things done in Visual Studio, but Eclipse has a lot of useful plugins. VS is paid for and quite expensive, although there are free express and cheaper versions, and ways to get in cheaply through the MS partner program. Eclipse is Free.

Application Servers J2EE apps are typically a highly configurable stack of tools and platforms, but can be quite complex. They run as apps, in apps basically.

.NET apps run straight in Windows IIS/WAS/(Server AppFabric) which I find makes setting them up a bit easier, but once again it's speed, simplicity and cost versus free and complex.