Yes, We Use .NET

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Guest post by Alex Sopinka, CTO, Tasytt

“What tech stack do you use?” is a common question between the technical founders of the startup community.  When I reply with “We’re using .NET”, the response is almost always a look of bewilderment, followed by some giggling.  At Tasytt, our platform reduces onboarding time and training costs while engaging employees, and we’ve heard all the .NET jokes over the months.  We know there is a tendency to laugh because .NET is not often seen as a sexy or cool framework.  Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it’s hard to argue that point, but the fact remains that .NET has existed and evolved since 2002, and handles a lot of the nuisances of unmanaged code, like garbage collecting, while also maintaining a high level of security.  .NET has a reputation that is purely business, and when it comes to building a tool people love, and more importantly, a tool that they trust, that reputation defines sexy and cool to us at Tasytt.  Remember: Fortran was once considered a trendy language.

 

Below are some other common .NET myths dispelled with facts from various sources.

 

Myth: .NET talent is hard to find.

Fact: C#, the flagship language of the .NET framework, is one of the most used programming languages in the world.[1]  And a quick job search shows over 1000 C# jobs in Silicon Valley as of this writing.[2]  So despite all the laughter about .NET, the statistics would say a lot of developers are building careers from the framework.  Universities like Mohawk, McMaster and Waterloo are taking notice and even offering courses teaching the fundamentals of C# and .NET.  For the independent learners, there is also a giant C# community on StackOverflow, a respected community for developers to ask programming questions and get answers.

 

Myth: .NET is not innovative.

Fact:  Big companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Google, all hire and use C# developers to write C# code.  You may have heard of those innovative companies.  On the flip-side, there are also countless startups doing the same.  Furthermore, Microsoft recently released huge chunks of the .NET framework under the MIT and Apache 2 open source licenses.[3]  This move will likely trigger a growth in the .NET developer community, bringing in new ideas and innovation, similar to that seen in other open source communities.  For starters, you can develop .NET on Linux and OSX machines using an editor like Vim or Sublime.

 

Myth:  .NET is too expensive.

Fact:  It is well-known that the Microsoft .NET toolset used to cost an arm and leg to purchase unless you have deep pockets.  Independent .NET developers have always found a way to obtain the software for free, but this doesn’t scale into legitimate startups or businesses that actually need to purchase licenses.  However, in recent years, Microsoft has made many changes that eliminate the cost barrier to developing with .NET.  First, Microsoft’s development environment Visual Studio now has a free version that is robust enough for most needs.  The more complete versions of the toolset have had their prices slashed in half.[4]  Second, with the advent of cloud computing, one no longer needs to purchase the notoriously costly Windows Server or SQL Server licenses.  It’s all up in the magical cloud for your consumption at a competitive price that doesn’t come close to the prices the licenses used to sell for.  And lastly, if you’re a startup, you may qualify for Microsoft BizSpark, a 3-year program that gives you monthly cloud hosting credits, free enterprise-grade tools, and more discounts than you could ever use.[5]  Tasytt is a member of the BizSpark program, and it has helped us run lean and bootstrapped immensely.  For example, we haven’t paid a dime for our quad-core cloud hosting.

 

I could probably spend a whole day debunking common .NET myths, but I’ll also be the first to admit that .NET is not suitable for every scenario.  No single framework is the Higgs boson of the programming world.  But it’s working well for us so far, and now I’ve got to get some C# coding done.  Tasytt just launched (see http://tasytt.com), and after a successful trip to HRTech 2015[6] in Las Vegas where we were exhibitors in the startup pavilion, we’re swamped with client meetings and planning our next feature set.  A couple of us from Tasytt will also be at the next DemoCamp so come say hello!  We’re always on the hunt for intelligent developers who can think outside of the box and, it goes without saying, know the .NET stack pretty well.

 

Sources:

[1]: Cass, Stephen. “The 2015 Top Ten Programming Languages.” IEEE Spectrum. IEEE, 20 July 2015. Web. 15 Nov. 2015. <http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/the-2015-top-ten-programming-languages>.

[2]: “C# Jobs in San Francisco, CA.” C# Jobs, Employment in San Francisco, CA | Indeed.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2015. <http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=C%23&l=San%2BFrancisco%2C%2BCA>.

[3]: “Microsoft/dotnet.” GitHub. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2015. <https://github.com/Microsoft/dotnet>.

[4]: Jackson, Joab. “Microsoft Consolidates Enterprise Editions of Visual Studio.” PCWorld. N.p., 31 Mar. 2015. Web. 15 Nov. 2015. <http://www.pcworld.com/article/2904536/microsoft-consolidates-enterprise-editions-of-visual-studio.html>.

[5]:”BizSpark.” Home – BizSpark. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2015. <https://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/>.