Web platform cross-deployment

Everybody should be excited at the multiplying efforts to support interoperability between Java and .NET. There's been a few interesting development recently. Today I stumbled upon the IK.VM.NET Weblog, which documents the on-going development of a Java Virtual Machine for .NET.

What to make of these projects? The most basic effect should be to force the J2EE and .NET camps into more direct and finer-grained competition. If it really becomes feasible to deploy the same codebase onto both of the major categories of application servers, we'll be able to choose the best platform for the job on every single project, rather than being locked into previous platform commitments. This gives us developers more control over our work and also intensified competition between the Microsoft and J2EE camps, which should improve the quality, performance, and ease-of-use of both.

The first of these projects I was aware of is Mono and it remains the most promising, despite detractors to feel (perhaps rightly?) that Microsoft will legally be able to shut the project down at it's will. There was a lively Slashdot debate last week on this topic.

Miguel from Ximian writes: