Microsoft

Microsoft is extremely professional and mature when it comes to software development. If you want to know how to really make software, this is where you want to work.

Also, if you plan to have any kind of health issues, ever, you want to work here as well. The health benefits are gold-plated. The chances for advancement are good (up to senior level).

If you are not on the software development track, you might not have the most fun in the world. Testers often try to move over to software development, and PMs seem to change quite frequently. So some jobs are better than others there. Also, once you reach the senior level, it is very, very hard to move up to the next level (architect). Some groups don't even have an architect assigned to them, so you may never rise above senior level (I certainly couldn't). Finally, the cafeteria food is not that great.

After having tried living in a Java world, I just don't see how people can live with all the random open-source stuff that literally does not work. When you develop in a Microsoft environment, it all works. There is simply no comparison.

But somehow you guys lost out on mindshare to every single developer I've ever met outside of Microsoft. Your development environment can cost $10,000! Haven't you figured out by now that people want their dev tools to be free? And people will put up with non-functioning crap in order to get that price of free.

You guys seriously need to drop the cost of the Visual Studio environment and get people to see how easy it is to work with.