C# - is this sensible/(worth learning) language?

[lugoteehalt]

Have joined evening course for C# (pronounced C sharp, interestingly enough). In first lesson am told C# perhaps Microsoft's slightly petulant, perhaps, reply to Java.

I gloomly jump to this conclusion: C# was invented - not for sensible computery reasons - but as part of Microsoft's corporate strategy of 'commoditising' (is that the term?) hardware and software, to make things difficult for free software. That is: make it difficult to just plug anything, hard or soft, into anything else.

Is this fair? Willy nilly is it a sensible language?

Thanks any help.

[kriss]

I say give it a go! I do some playing with it, from time to time when I'm not too tired, and I think its really good and fun language. You even have some free implementations of the language for GNU/Linux, one at go-mono.org and the other one at dotgnu.org

Good luck

[lugoteehalt]

Great thanks.

Especially for web sites, forgot to ask for those: http://www.dotgnu.org/ http://www.go-mono.org/.