I am quite fluent in Java, and I understand that apparently C# is similar(I have not attempted coding in C# before, hence this post)

Does anyone know how these two languages compare? Java runs under its own virtual machine, which can be very limiting if writing programs to use on other machines, but does C# have the same functionality?

Any input is GREATLY appreciated

Thanx for the reply yatz,

Is there any more complexities in C# compared to Java that you know of? Or are their packages, etc the same? Also, are there any relations directly to Windows, for instance any user relational packages, any system properties, or anything else of the sorts?

 :)I'd like to start coding in C# soon, very anxious...

Microsoft lost the legal war against Sun about 6 or 7 years ago. They were modifying Java and called it J++ back then.

But they lost the lawsuit, they turn arond and created the .Net framework. Now, you don't see people coding in Visual Basic or in Visual C++ that much. They are now uisng C#.

I know Java extremely well and I have spent about 2 months last years coding in C#. My opinion is that Microsoft made C# as close to Java as possible. I personally learned C# in about 3 hours, so it gives you an idea how similar to java it is...

The real deal is to learn their respective frameworks, but their syntaxe is very similar.

I would go with Java. Your programs will easily run on every platform with using Mono...

I agree with everyone else.   The Express versions of Visual Studio are free.  I have been using those for most of my development as of late.  I haven't been able to justify the cost of a full VS.NET license. 

C# is almost impossible not to learn quickly.   The .NET framework is laid out very intuitively, I think.   This is very contrary to the Windows API, MFC and other MS frameworks.