who likes .NET?

[phantomotap]

And you have a penchant for certain magic ponies rather than trains, from what I recall.

^_^

Pinky Pie has no magic; she is just a normal... er... completely insane, 4th-wall breaking, glorious cartoon character... pony, but she is not a magic pony.

Soma

[Elkvis]

but she is not a magic pony.

but if friendship really is magic, like the title of the show suggests, then she actually is a magic pony.

[Mario F.]

If I may ask, what do you use C# for? I picked VB because I read that it was the simplest .NET language. But I am curious about the differentiation and uses for the other .NET languages ie. C#, C++(with respect to Windows programming), F#.

Contrary to what was initially advertised by Microsoft during the beta (back in 2000), .Net wasn't able to become a truly language agnostic framework within its own programming language collection. VB.Net has some limitations to what can be done in .Net, mostly because Microsoft tends to never add or only add VB support at a later time when it comes with new frameworks, or new features of the framework.

I use C# for windows development. Business applications, general software and tooling. The advantage of picking VB.net is most definitely how fast you can develop with that programming language, compared to C#. VB.Net not only offers a syntax that abstracts away most of the complexity of developing for Windows, but it also makes it easier to produce clean code and reduce the time spent on the debugger. Development speed is particularly important in business applications development and VB.Net trumps C# on that regard. The disadvantage is mentioned above.

As for the .Net development space in general, I think Microsoft was finally able to successfully produce a RAD platform for Microsoft Windows. All the earlier attempts were a complete disaster and the absolutely horrible Windows API is still today the only reliable way to develop for Windows when using C++. The disadvantage of .Net is that it all but completely displaced C++ from Windows application development. .Net developers are forced into an environment where (three examples):

• The word "security" was made a property of Microsoft. That is, security only means what parts of the Windows kernel the code can access. As opposed to a more encompassing term that should also include machine security features in the framework and even IL protection against hacking (both lacking in .net and only being served by expensive third-party solutions).
• Garbage collection dominates all development. We can't choose a different memory management model based on security or performance demands of our applications. There's C++/CLI and the newer C++/CX. But these are exotic approaches to .Net development and are removed from many of the framework features.
• The lack of C++ promotes a commercial tooling culture and Windows RAD development is yet again (just like in the VB days) dominated by commercial third-party solutions. Open Source development framework/tools do exist. And to a greater extent than back in Visual Basic days, to be sure. But, contrary to C++, trends and solutions for developers aren't coming from the Open Source community.