# Anyone here move from .NET?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anyone-here-move-from-net/168329>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 19, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anyone-here-move-from-net/168329 "2009-05-19T17:49:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![8bit](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/8/90ced4/32.png) [@8bit](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/8bit)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anyone-here-move-from-net/168329/1 "2009-05-19T17:49:25Z")

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Up to this point I have been knee-deep in .NET - [ASP.NET](http://ASP.NET), [VB.NET](http://VB.NET), C#  
and starting to look into Silverlight 3 Beta. I’ve been using  
the .NET platform for 5+ years now. It’s really nice, I don’t have a  
lot of bad things to say about it.

Currently I’m a one-man shop. I have a few .NET clients that I  
support and that’s fine and dandy. However, I continue to get this  
itch that wants to be scratched. Part of me really wants to let go of  
the .NET world and ramp up development with Ruby on Rails. I know  
this feeling is also a result moving from PC to Mac. In a perfect  
world, I would use my primary machine to develop applications.

What are your feelings on this? Have you moved from .NET to RoR?  
Windows to Mac? Why? It’s a challenge I would like to take on but I  
want to be smart about it too. If I have technologies in my pocket  
that work, why should I go elsewhere?

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**Author:** ![8bit](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/8/90ced4/32.png) [@8bit](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/8bit)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anyone-here-move-from-net/168329/2 "2009-05-19T17:53:05Z")

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On May 19, 4:21 pm, 8bit [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> What are your feelings on this? Have you moved from .NET to RoR?  
> Windows to Mac? Why? It’s a challenge I would like to take on but I  
> want to be smart about it too.

[http://www.softiesonrails.com/](http://www.softiesonrails.com/) is by people who made that jump (and  
now do training etc. for .NET refugees)

> If I have technologies in my pocket  
> that work, why should I go elsewhere?

Ignoring the specific technologies, having another tool in your  
toolbox is rarely a bad thing, plus learning new stuff is fun.

Fred

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**Author:** ![8bit](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/8/90ced4/32.png) [@8bit](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/8bit)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anyone-here-move-from-net/168329/3 "2009-05-19T19:32:08Z")

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Having more than one tool in your pocket is very beneficial, and Ruby/  
RoR are great tools to have.  
I have done a lot of .NET development in the past (and I did enjoy it)  
but have been doing mostly RoR for the past year.

I won’t say that I will never do a .NET project again. In some cases,  
a client may not be willing to change their infrastructure  
and may only be willing to support Windows/IIS/SQL Server.

I’ve turned down projects where the client was entrenched in non-agile  
processes, but I wouldn’t turn a client down based on the technology  
they wanted to use.

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**Author:** ![8bit](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/8/90ced4/32.png) [@8bit](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/8bit)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anyone-here-move-from-net/168329/4 "2009-05-19T17:59:09Z")

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Frederick C. wrote:  
[…]

> Ignoring the specific technologies, having another tool in your  
> toolbox is rarely a bad thing, plus learning new stuff is fun.

Yes. Also:

- Ruby is an extraordinarily well-designed programming language.

- Windows is a completely broken OS. That goes double for server use.  
Any technology that more or less locks you into a Windows server OS is  
not an appropriate choice for serious software development in the 21st  
century.

> Fred

## Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser  
[http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org)  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

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**Author:** ![8bit](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/8/90ced4/32.png) [@8bit](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/8bit)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 12:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anyone-here-move-from-net/168329/5 "2009-05-20T00:04:13Z")

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E. Litwin wrote:  
[…]

> I’ve turned down projects where the client was entrenched in non-agile  
> processes, but I wouldn’t turn a client down based on the technology  
> they wanted to use.

Interesting. I sort of feel the opposite way: while I’d rather work  
with a client who understands good development process, I know I can get  
good work done under almost any process – provided that the underlying  
technology is of good quality. While I’m comfortable with a variey of  
technologies, I generally try not to work on projects where inadequate  
technology is used – the choice of tool makes more difference to my  
productivity and the quality of my work than does the choice of process,  
at least up to a point.

## Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser  
[http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org)  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

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**Author:** ![8bit](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/8/90ced4/32.png) [@8bit](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/8bit)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anyone-here-move-from-net/168329/6 "2009-05-21T02:09:48Z")

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Hell, I’m still an Microsoft MVP in [ASP.NET](http://ASP.NET) and I’ve been working on  
rails  
for a while. Most of the recent apps I’ve built have all been rails:  
[http://urlagg.com](http://urlagg.com)  
[http://hushchamber.com](http://hushchamber.com)

and another coming out in friends & family beta in a week or two (also  
rails).

I moved because ruby and rails made development fun again, I love to  
write  
code and ruby is way more fun. That’s not to say it’s not without it’s  
headaches, but by and large I’m much happier with my MacBook Pro,  
TextMate  
and ruby on rails than a tablet, VS2008 etc.

There are a bunch of folks that have made the move, lots of twitter-folk  
to:

[http://twitter.com/jschoolcraft](http://twitter.com/jschoolcraft)  
[http://twitter.com/rbazinet](http://twitter.com/rbazinet) (I’m almost positive)  
[http://twitter.com/mentalvelocity](http://twitter.com/mentalvelocity)  
the softies on rails mentioned above are both on twitter.

Jeff

On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 8:01 AM, MJFuzz [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> > […]  
> > technology is used – the choice of tool makes more difference to my

–  
Jeff S.  
[http://thequeue.net/blog/](http://thequeue.net/blog/)

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**Author:** ![8bit](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/8/90ced4/32.png) [@8bit](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/8bit)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anyone-here-move-from-net/168329/7 "2009-05-20T16:34:27Z")

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I was a .NET developer for last 5-6 years. I learned RoR about a year  
ago. I never want to do another .NET project again if i can avoid it.  
I’m on 2 RoR projects right now and hope all my new projects will  
continue to be RoR.

On May 19, 6:04 pm, Marnen Laibow-Koser \<rails-mailing-l…@andreas-
