It’s been my experience that there are debates, and then there are debates. The question of whether to migrate from Java to .NET or vice versa definitely falls into the latter category. As we celebrate .NET vs. J2EE week here on Builder.com, I can’t escape a feeling of deja vu: It seems like we might have debated this particular topic before.

But we’ve been here before…
As it turns out, we’ve had this discussion before, specifically when it comes to migrating existing applications from EJB to .NET. In “Five reasons against migrating Java EJB applications to .NET,” one of our contributors counted off five reasons why he won’t be converting any of his beans into assemblies any time soon, and kicked off quite a discussion in the process. The discussion had a fair amount of rhetoric to be sure, but there was one consistent theme throughout: Why fix what isn’t broken?

“Most J2EE applications are no older than two years. We’re still redoing legacy [applications] into J2EE. What idiot would spend good money on [replacing] something that works…?” asked member sven, summing up the attitude of many of the members who posted.

As the Greek thinker Heraclitus (later quoted by geek icon Mr. Spock) once wrote, “Change is the only constant in the universe.” In the five months since our original discussion, many things have changed. For one, .NET appears to have finally moved beyond the bleeding edge and into the mainstream.

So the question is: Is there now a good reason to port from J2EE to .NET that didn’t exist then? If so, we want to hear about it. Post to our discussion area below.

More on the debate

Builder.com has run quite a few good articles debating the merits of Java and .NET for various types of development. Here are some of the best:
“Picking a PDA platform: Sun and Microsoft are at it again”
“Top 10 reasons to migrate to .NET”
“Java’s role in integrated and distributed ERP applications”