This is a very controversial topic. Recently I have seen several blogs that state that the VB6 Programmers are moving to other platforms like PHP or Java instead of VB.NET
For example see:
Number of VB
Developerts Declining in US
By
Steve Graegert
“They’re also leaving VB.NET; which is down by 26%. This means Java
now holds the market penetration lead at 45% (with developers using Java during
some portion of their time), followed by C/C++ at 40%, and C# at 32%.”
I also remember an Article I read in 2005 in JDJ (Java Developers Journal) that expressed that C# was a language created similar to C++ to aid the C++ programmers move to the .NET Framework, argument that I do not share.
I have no evidence but I do not feel that it is that way. I'm am a Java Developer too. And both platforms have their merits. C# is a nice language, very similar to Java and C++ no doubt but it deserves its own place. Visual Studio has still a path to follow. But VS2005 provides some useful refactorings and the incredibly awaited feature that allows you to edit the code that you're running :)
Maybe the 1.0 and 1.1 frameworks were not enterprise ready, but 2.0 and 3.0 frameworks are an excellent improvent.
Java as well had to go thru a lot of JDK releases. They have just released the 1.6 and what about the J2EE releases, the Java Enterprise Beans fiasco. You can confirm that by looking at the rise of POJO (Plain Old Java Object) frameworks like spring.
In general everything requires time to grow. I think that Java has been more time in the market and it has finally provided mechanisms that allow the development of enterprise services "easier" and it is giving it momentum.
.NET components industry is common, there are lots of components and somethings are easier. So I'll wait some time, maybe a couple of year to really find out which is the hotter platform.