[tracker1]

I'd add WCF to that list as well, especially when the client and server are both in .Net languages... I never really liked the XML binding, and preferred to use programmatic binding, and generally with JSON endpoints... but the ability to distribute a simple class library of interfaces, that could then build a WCF client instance and connect to a given endpoint is really nice. The painful thing to me was always consuming ill-defined services written in other languages.

I always hated webforms, to be honest, before MVC, I'd usually write as simple aspx as possible, and use ashx for most of the edges... The first couple releases of ASP.Net got better, but still the disconnected events were somewhat more painful than straight html+js when it came to anything complex, more so as ajax took hold. MVC made those edges easier to write. For the past 5 years or so, been writing far more node.js, and though less polished than .Net on the server, has been far more pleasant.