Anyway, the two platforms each have their own developer devotee audiences, and can be used in the exac same environments. But where they're used, and how they've been used, are highly divergent from each other.

Back in the day, a Java applet was the coolest thing to put on your web page (they could crash your browser, sure, but they were so, shiny, ).

Today, only the most archaically-designed webpages still feature Java applets; now, they've been replaced by common AJAX and Adobe Flash as far as desktop webpage bling goes. Even Sun advocates Java Web Start as an alternative to embedded applets.

Now, .NET 3.0 wants to get into the applet business as well; their WPF/E is to become MS's answer to Adobe's Flash/Flex, with vector animations plus JavaScript plus hardware-accelerated graphics ad nauseum.

Maybe MS is pushing too hard? Maybe they're trying to succeed where Sun had somewhat failed?

Sun has improved on J2RE with 6.0 (Mustang), but that's just because they got rid of Scott McNeally and brought in a competent CEO who's open to new ideas.

Still, Java applications on the desktop are derided because of being "slow", "crash-prone", "memory-hogging", or just plain "ugly" (on any system; Limewire, Azureus, etc.). Only XUL applications, like Firefox, receive a worse reputation.

On the server, Java has a much bigger following, but on the desktop, I can definitely see why people have issues with Java and see .NET with far less scrutiny.