To clarify: C# 2.0 and up is a very nice language. C# 3.0 is a totally bad ass cool language.

C# 1 is Java minus the Java suck

C# 2 is C# 1 minus much of the C# 1 suck

C# 3 is C# 2 plus a ton of totally cool functional language stuff

C# 4 (not yet released) will have some cool dynamic language stuff

I agree that the language is essentially a much better Java, but C# is missing Java's (and pretty much most other language's) community; namely the open source part. (Could be my inexperience - only been using it a little over a year but) I've found myself having to make wheels that should have already been built. this would have been fine in the pre-internet era, but nowadays it's just a bit annoying, and no I still don't feel like paying for closed source libs

I think codeplex is the right direction, but MS needs to give open source for C# stronger support (instead of ignoring stuff like nUnit).

Another criticism, compared to other languages, is the cruft attached to C#. Like Java, C# is a 'you kinda need to use a heavy IDE to make life easier' language.

Most open source C/C++, Java, Python, Ruby, OCaml, and other libraries can be compiled against MSIL and called natively from C# or consumed as binaries and invoked via common C calling conventions.

As for the IDE dependency complaint, I think this applies more towards some of the standard libraries such as WPF, WinForms, ASPX, ADO.net, etc. I think it is a very valid complaint, but I don't think it is about the language itself.

C#: Write once, run anywhere.

In my experience Mono blows for C#, though it could be good for other things.

1) it's always behind the current version of C#

2) even for past versions it still doesn't fully support C#

I'm not sure about this one, but to use mono commercially don't you need to get a paid license for SUSE?

really?