Builder members narrowly prefer VB.NET

When you're talking about the Microsoft .NET development platform, languages, more than ever before, are matters of personal taste. The higher-level .NET languages merely serve as macrocode for the generation of the real language of .NET—MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language), and as such, all have essentially the same features. So choices are largely based on syntax preference.

In a recent Builder.com poll, we asked members which .NET language they prefer. Here are the results:

As you can see, VB.NET narrowly beat out C# as the favorite within the three-headed-monster that is mainstream .NET development, while Managed C++ was the favorite of a mere three percent of respondents.

Only five percent said they intend to use an alternative language in their .NET development—and it's these folks that I'd like to hear from. If you are using, or plan to use, an alternative language for your .NET development, send me an e-mail naming your choice and explain why you prefer it to "the big three," VB.NET, C#, and Managed C++.

Although I wonder how many of you were influenced by the "Microsoft is Evil" tag we jokingly added to one of the original choices in our poll, a little more than one-third of you replied that you aren't planning to do .NET development at all. Admit it, you were influenced, weren't you?