Our authors often have great insights. So when one recently told us that .NET technology–in particular C# combined with LINQ–has “leapfrogged Java,” we took note. His evidence?

• The new .NET library, LINQ*, provides a direct link between C# code and any data source, without the need for a persistence layer like Hibernate.
• C# introduced generics, custom attributes, delegates, standardized foreach iterators, property syntax, and extensible value types before Java.
• The .NET platform now includes Python, Ruby, and new languages like F#, and frameworks like WPF, WCF, and ASP.NET have become industrial-strength.

On the flipside, another of our authors tells us, a language lives in a developer community and Java’s is more vibrant. Java-to-.NET ports like NAnt, NHibernate and NUnit abound, but there’s been little movement in the other direction. And .NET still implies Windows.

Have the tables really turned? Join the discussion at www.manning.com/leapfrog

I’ll leave it up to you guys to decide.