I started my career working for a .NET shop a few years ago, and immediately fell into a love/hate relationship with the technology stack.

I loved C#, as it seemed to be a fantastically well-designed language that had learned a lot from Java's mistakes. Visual Studio was great, too.

However, as a longtime Linux and open source supporter, I loathed Windows and Microsoft's software culture. And honestly, the .NET open source culture - even now - is kind of lacking. C# shops typically wait for some canonical solution from MS rather than creating and sharing libraries themselves.

I really, really like the new direction that Microsoft is taking, and I hope that the open source community will embrace C# in a bigger way.