Because it is cool to take the piss at .net developers around here! Most coming from young folks that have only been working on the 'next facebook' with go/node.js/rails to understand there is a big and very profitable world out there that runs on more mature stacks/languages.

But hey, doing CAD/Financial Modelling/Insurance/etc software isn't shiny and something to brag on the next hackathon for hacker cred right?

That, my friend is well said. Agreed!

I've never seen a qualified response to this question.

.NET is by Microsoft. It's Windows based. It's been around for a long time. It didn't introduce any new paradigms, and I'm guessing isn't used by a single startup in California.

But it's fast, it's solid, and from my experience, there are more well paying, reliable opportunities in it than with any other language.

Honestly, I'd rather be spending my time learning Node or Ruby or heck even sharpening my PHP skills. But I enjoy .NET and would much rather work at the company I'm currently at, in a position I like with people I respect, than jump ship just for a non .NET opportunity.

We're a YC startup in California (Palo Alto) using .NET. We also use other more hip things, but .NET is the majority of our server side stack. We wanted something mature and solid that banks would use for a transaction system. Something that would let us hire great talent and not compete with all our startup buddies over RoR and node.js rockstars. Something that supported a nice mix of functional and imperative programming techniques. C#/.NET fits the bill pretty nicely.

I make a good living with C# and the entire .NET platform. There are plenty of jobs (KC area) and I regularly get recruiters contacting me with new opportunities. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with that.

Besides most of the stack is open source now. At least the bits you realistically would be willing to contribute to.