1.6. Competing in parallel with Java technologies

For developers, the picture of .NET represents one that competes directly with Java and J2EE technologies. Although most of the computer science concepts behind these two paradigms are similar, in most cases they represent two completely different ways of doing the same thing. ^[22]

^[22] I have read several white papers on the Internet attempting to compare J2EE with .NET. Unfortunately, no matter how unbiased the parties are trying to be towards the two technologies, a trained eye can often tell the prejudices 'encoded' between the lines. I have yet to see a really neutral and fair comparison released by an impartial third party such as an academic institution or standards body. If you try to use such comparisons, take them with a pinch of salt. It will be difficult for someone familiar with only one of the technologies to fully appreciate the facts and separate them from the red herrings.

Table 1.3 shows the parallelism and directly competing products/methodologies between .NET and J2EE. A detailed discussion is, unfortunately, beyond the scope of this book. Figure 1.3 shows the comparison in block diagram form. Finally, Figure 1.4 gives a schematic view of the parallelism.