A better Java.
Java programmers should worry.
As someone who learned a lot about .NET before having to do some Java programming, I can tell you that .NET (C# in particular) really took the good parts of Java and fixed the bad parts to make a kick ass development platform.
I was having another frustrating day pouring over JavaDocs of a vendor's library trying to figure out the valid values for a particular parameter. Some of you non-Java people may not know this, but Java does not have enums. You may have a signature that looks something like this:
void getMyGoat(short mode);
Without good documentation (where I happen to be today!), I have no freakin clue what "mode" is supposed to be (except a short). Contrast that with something from .NET:
void getMyGoat(GetStyle mode);
Now I simply refer to "GetStyle" and I see:
public enum GetStyle
{
FromBarn,
FromStore,
FromKitchen
}
I did a quick search on Google and found Java programmers discussing Java enumerations back in 1996. Six years ago? Most of the stuff I found was really good. These were posts by people who knew language design and gave very good explanations of the pros and cons -- even getting into the details of how the compiler and runtime would handle enumerations. And still nothing.
I'm very happy with .NET. I'm sure a lot of Java people look at it as what Java should have (could have?) been. And a lot of them are probably a little disappointed in Sun...
9:55:49 PM 
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