[Jach]

Scratch Ruby and Python from your list and I'll agree with you on the OO influence! Not to mention Python is older than Java. I think most of the 'scripting languages' with OO have decidedly not gone the Java/C++ way.

Other than that I'm pretty much in agreement. Even not so long ago as 2002 people would say "Let's use Java" when they really were saying "Let's NOT use C++." C# is a great language, though MS didn't put their heart into really killing Java. I think Microsoft could have dominated with C# outside of Windows World (lots of enterprises still rely on Linux, and Java's not a bad choice for an enterprise app on a Linux server, then there's Android..) if they put more backing behind Mono or just open sourced everything to begin with.