I just want to clarify one thing. This is not a question on which one is better, that part I leave to someone else to discuss. I don't care about it. I've been asked this question on my job interview and I thought it might be useful to learn a bit more. These are the ones I could come up with: Java is "platform independent". Well nowadays you could say there is the Mono project so C# could be considered too but I believe it is a bit exaggerating. Why? Well, when a new release of Java is done it is simultaneously available on all platforms it supports, on the other hand how many features of C# 3.0 are still missing in the Mono implementation? Or is it really CLR vs. JRE that we should compare here? Java doesn't support events and delegates. As far as I know. In Java all methods are virtual Development tools: I believe there isn't such a tool yet as Visual Studio. Especially if you've worked with team editions you'll know what I mean. Please add others you think are relevant. Update: Just popped up my mind, Java doesn't have something like custom attributes on classes, methods etc. Or does it?