In June of 2000 Microsoft announced C#, a brand new programming language. Their press release described C# like this:
“A modern, object-oriented programming language built from the ground up to exploit the power of XML-based Web services on the .NET platform”
More than a decade later C# and .NET are the most sought after skills that companies look for on your resume. What happened?
How did the language and framework become so popular and remain in demand for so long?
Microsoft invested heavily in making C# and .NET successful. As reported by the New York Times in 2002:
"After spending three and a half years, five million hours of labor and $2 billion, Microsoft begins a huge campaign today to woo millions of computer programmers to use its new generation of Internet software tools."
Microsoft made a risky bet that developers would love these new tools. And it worked.
The tech startups of the early 2000s adopted C# and .NET en masse. They built amazing products, like fraud software for banks and reputation management for doctors. You may have never have heard of these companies, but their C#-powered software runs the behind-the-scenes applications we all take for granted every day.
Those small upstarts are now established, profitable companies.
And they’re hungry for more developers who can work with the .NET stack.
That’s why the .NET stack is the smart choice for new developers to learn and established developers to switch to. The quality and quantity of jobs is better than any other stack, thanks to Microsoft and their $2,000,000,000 bet.
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