The University of Waterloo accepted $2.3 million from Microsoft towards funding various projects. (See the article in ITWorld Canada). As part of that funding the university "will provide a C# programming course for secondary school students applying to its Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty. C# is a Microsoft-developed language as part of its .NET Web services offerings. " C# is a language that runs only on Microsoft platforms and the university is requiring students to have that course before applying. Without Microsoft funding, the university would have never made such a stupid decision. C# is a fine language, I like it compared to C, and time will tell as to its acceptance, but try to be a bit less blatent in showing your corporate influence.