Is it worth it to learn .NET?

[smatts9]

After reading so many positive things on .NET, I am wondering if it is worth it to start to learn? I am pretty fluent in PHP / mySQL. I have never done anything with ASP, .NET, msSQL. Would it be worth it, or should I just use the time to fine tune my skills in PHP?

[wardbekker]

smatts9,

It might be interesting to see how .Net approaches some problems differently than for instance PHP. What you can build in asp.net, you can also build in PHP, allthough each technique has it's own avantages / disavantages.

From a career perspective it might be a smart move as their is a growing demand for .net programmers, at least where I live. However, there might be enough demand for PHP programmers in your area.

It's always good not to bet on a single horse ;-)

[codemeit]

At the end of the day, we develop our products for customers or ourself. PHP and Java are free. You can find different kind of free IDE for the development. But .NET IDE i.e. Visual Studio is not free.
but I would say it is the best IDE so far in my mind.

It is not a challenge to know all of them. really not after you know one of them very well.
Because in my career I found that one would benifit from knowing maltifurious technologies.

Dont stay away from Dot Net. It is being there for a reason.

[Easy_Coder]

If you need to accomplish a job then I'd say go for it. The learning curve is getting tougher from .net 1.1 to 2.0 and 3.0 is already underway.

[golles]

But .NET IDE i.e. Visual Studio is not free.

Visual Studio Express is free and is quite powerful, especially for learning.

[aspdaddy]

Hey smatts9 its really a commercial decision for yourself, based on your future plans. You wont get much joy pursuing it from a technical perspective.

But seeing as you asked, I would say YES if you want to spend alot of time in the future continually re-learning and re-skilling, or no if you are solutions/business oriented. Dont for a minute think learning .NET will be the end of it, they will always be someing bigger/better/faster & M$ like to keep the developer pool nice & fresh :)

[justin holton]

I've programmed in both ASP.NET/MSSQL and PHP/MySQL. I like both for various reasons, but if you're wanting to build a large server app I find that it's easier to use ASP.NET/MSSQL. The .NET framework is free, and there are free IDEs available, but they obviously won't be as powerful as Visual Studio. Technically, you could even write ASP.NET apps with Notepad, though it would be a lot harder. As mentioned there are free IDEs available if you want to learn, and it will make you more marketable.