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I currently work as a Java Dev, but the first language I really learned to use was C#. I don't use it often anymore as I am on a Linux machine at home - though I did try running it with Mono some years ago.

C# remains a pleasant language to use, and feels like it is quite a few steps ahead of Java. I'd strongly recommend that people check it out if they haven't, if only to get a feel of where Java might be in a few years.

e.g: Local variable type inference. This is one of the "small" features that makes C# such a pleasure to use, and I am happy that it is proposed to be in a future JDK.

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> I don't use it often anymore as I am on a Linux machine at home - though I did try running it with Mono some years ago.

I'm on Linux at home also, and am loving the combination of .NET Core and VS Code.

I recently coded up a quick ASP.NET Core Web API for a client, which needed to access a MySQL database and an existing SOAP service. I wrote it on Windows using VS 2017, but then out of curiosity I literally just git cloned it on Linux and ran "dotnet restore", "dotnet test" and "dotnet run".

The whole thing worked flawlessly on the first try. All unit tests and integration tests (connecting to real external services) passed, it ran just as quickly, and I was able to debug it in VS Code along with breakpoints, variable inspection etc.

It was never possible to use Mono that effortlessly. Everything required more work just to get running. With .NET Core, platform specificity is the exception, not the rule.

And VS Code is truly a pleasure to use; IMO it's just the right combination of features and performance with a strong plugin ecosystem, which has been missing from Linux.

I might just have to give that a try then, thank you!