So if I were contracted to write something business class in something interpreted, I'd definitely put C# with Mono at the top of the list. It is much nicer than Java to develop in, and has platform parity.
microsoft should finally split up into two separate entities. a microsoft for business solutions. and a complete separate brand (yes, new name, new logo, new location) that caters to consumers.
bridging these is probably easier, than to apply business marketing to a consumer, and consumer marketing to large businesses. if they focused just on business, many of the hater blogs would not even remotely talk about it - and the industry relevant magazines would be as they are, acknowledge the good things, highlight the improvements.
The big plus for using MS for business is that your users are probably reasonably familiar with it at home. And the reason they buy them at home is that they already use them at work.
and, in all that chaos, they need to present a clear thread from the mobile sales guy to enterprise software, from consumer home to consumer mobile.
apple is basically focusing on getting the story at home right. now they have the luxury of adding to that, which they become less and less effective at. the iphone was fantastic, and my home is now equipped fully with apple. but it sucks that this is where the story ends, at least for now (i'm sure they've figured this out already).
i'd love to see microsoft getting a bit more love, honestly. all these guys working hard, being the 'bad guy' since the 80's and everyone forgetting that there's a reason they're still in business, were never close to being shut down and very rarely every fire more than a few people. when they do, it's even in the news (last firing spree iirc was 2000 employees, 3 years ago or so, with +100k staff).
very sad that the 'press' still finds it lovely to tell us all how much microsoft really sucks. i love visual studio, i love c#, i love my iphone but man the windows phone 8 is so smooth and great to use, i love the macbook it beats any other notebook, but I also love windows 8 and the freshness of it.
what a drama world.