I'm a C# dev too and I agree with you on the lack of "Darwinean selection". Definitely a downside of working on the Microsoft stack. Some of the great innovations coming out of the FOSS community seem to take a long time to reach us.
On the other hand, we miss a lot of the churn caused by people chasing after the latest js library, which also seems to be a big preoccupation of the FOSS community. If you're building software that has to last for years then stability of the underlying platform and having fewer ways to do something can be an advantage.
> On the other hand, we miss a lot of the churn caused by people chasing after the latest js library, which also seems to be a big preoccupation of the FOSS community. If you're building software that has to last for years then stability of the underlying platform and having fewer ways to do something can be an advantage.
Don't make me figure out how many database access approaches there are in stock .NET. :-)
More seriously, JS devs seem to have a thing for reinventing each others wheels - not just once, but tens of times (hyberbole). I really don't see that behavior in other communities by and large. The worst I've seen elsewhere is 3 similar Python libs
I dig appreciate the stability argument though. Which is why I'm a Common Lisp fan; its a standardized and mostly extensible language.
"Don't make me figure out how many database access approaches there are in stock .NET. :-)" - one high-level using Entity Framework, one low-level using ADO.NET. Non-stock options are plenty.
On the other hand, we miss a lot of the churn caused by people chasing after the latest js library, which also seems to be a big preoccupation of the FOSS community. If you're building software that has to last for years then stability of the underlying platform and having fewer ways to do something can be an advantage.