I know I'll get down voted for saying this but I just have to do it - could it be that developers no longer want to work for boring corporate assembly-line level "lets make yet another database front-end for yet another inventory management system"? Could it be that people who like to code actually care about the code and tools that they are using? Could it be that developers are seeing the writing on the wall about Microsoft and are leaving in droves?
I work for a .NET based startup doing fun and interesting things, so I know that C# and .NET can actually be fun to code in. However, most, if not all, of the .NET job listings I see on Twitter are boring soul-killing enterprise jobs. Or worse, Sharepoint!
Fortunately, there seems to be a renaissance going on at MS. They realise they no one likes working with their shit tools. Sure MS technology may "run the world", but all the cool/fun stuff is being done in the OSS stack. When was the last time you heard of a hot startup using .NET? MS wants in on the party and a lot of their new stuff has a deliberate non-enterprise angle with a focus on developer enjoyment.
