I've been developing software for the past 10 years using Microsoft tools (VB, C++ with MFC and C#). Up until now it's done the job, but now that we're developing our own products I've come to realize that it is time for a change.
The biggest reason for switching our development platform is the rise of Mac and Linux in scientific laboratories. Developing a product using Microsoft tools means that we would be neglecting around 20% of market (likely higher when Biologists are involved)... in my mind this not the direction we should be taking.
It *is* possible to run Microsoft .Net based applications on Mac and Linux using Mono. Mono is the open source development effort which allows .Net applications to run on the Mac and Linux platform. Mono on a Mac runs under X11, this is a no-go for me. Mac users pay a premium for their systems because they work well and Mac software just looks great. X11 applications on a Mac is just wrong.
After evaluation of various combination of development tools we've made the choice to go with Python. For a cross-platform UI framework we've chosen wxPython. For an IDE we'll be using Eclipse using the PyDev plugin.
One added benefit of the toolset change is that I have a lot of new things to learn. I'll be blogging about the switch over the next little while.
We will still continue to use Microsoft tools for our client work (unless we can convince them to switch!). Microsoft still dominates the instrumentation market, that is until the big pharmaceutical decides it's time to switch.
