With .NET once an API is published it's available to all programming languages at the same time.

We've been using C and C++ way too much - they're nice, but they're very close to the machine and what we wanted was to empower regular users to build applications for Linux.

Some scientists use TeX or LatEX but for most people Word is the thing that writers use these days.

The software patent problem is not limited to Mono. Software patents affect everyone writing software today.

Every piece of software written today is likely going to infringe on someone else's patent.

Not to go too far, but Microsoft is probably used by most people out there

With .NET once an API is published it's available to all programming languages at the same time.