[icantthinkofone]

When I first got started in web development, my brother-in-law managed a large Microsoft shop and got me started with all the software I needed to get going for a huge project I managed to wrangle using .NET when it was at version 1.5(?). We worked on that for something like six months until, one day, all of a sudden everything was version 2.0(?) and it all fell apart!

We quickly called my brother-in-law in and he couldn't figure what was going wrong either. After a few weeks, we had to throw in the towel and, on his suggestion, switched to Linux and then FreeBSD. Three months later, everything was humming along and we're still doing everything with FreeBSD.

Later, I don't recall the details, but there was some major change between versions that was what screwed us up. I know some Microsoft people will know what I'm talking in that .NET version 1.5 to 2.5 range but it hit us hard.

[duncanawoods]

I migrated a number of large services and desktop apps from .Net 1 to 2 and it required unremarkable effort. Some API differences that were well documented. The notion it required you to throw away all your code and change OS is simply absurd.

[keithwarren]

I completely agree, when I read that part it virtually invalidated everything else specious that was said, that is simply nonsense.

[icantthinkofone]

As the other poster said, it was a compatibility issue from what I recall but apparently Microsoft told everyone to forget that and thus it was so.

[overgard]

There wasn't a 1.5, so you're probably thinking 1.1 or 2.0. As far as I know it's been pretty good with backwards compatibility though. I used to do a lot of.net coding, and the only time I've seen compatibility issues upgrading was with beta versions (and even then, I only saw a small handful).

[jonathanoliver]

One really big advantage I saw of running .NET was that the upgrade path from 1.0 -> 1.1 -> 2.0 -> 3.0/3.5 ->4.0, etc., was quite painless. Other than having to purchase a new copy of VS each upgrade, the tech side was really easy. This is unlike the Python 2.x to 3 migration which continues to hurt.

[icantthinkofone]

I don't remember the version numbers, and I had gotten it wrong once before when I posted about it, but compatibility was the issue now that you mentioned it. But I guess Microsoft told people that didn't happen and I must be a liar and hence all the downvotes.