With the recent release of Mono, it looks like portability will actually mean something to .NET apps. It's about time, too. I'm looking forward to testing apps on Mono in the future. I'm hoping to get Mono setup and ready for my next project, which will be something of an organizational guide to .NET development. And, just to make it interesting, I'll use the Mono version that runs on Solaris! That should shake things up and open peoples' eyes a little bit. Mix that all with some good ol' performance testing to see how each platform stacks up, and I think I've got a nice recipe for controversy...my favorite!
I think that one thing we have to look forward to is a Microsoft-Novell partnership. Think about it: Microsoft has been setting up more partnerships lately. This keeps the big, bad DOJ away. If Microsoft can partner with Novell to enhance and expand the use of .NET, they will only gain more customers for their other products, which are slowly, but surely, moving towards .NET. First Visual Studio, then Office...who knows. The possibilities are endless. This would give Microsoft a huge advantage over Java, too. Portability is the only thing that Java has over .NET. We have a better constructed platform, free choice of language usage, and now, free choice of chip-set and operating system.