Trying to be ready and improve my skills. Work for myself so do not have to deal with legacy issues. So far I have not been in a situation were I’ve ever needed more than PHP, MySQL, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, even with dealing with large databases, think 200meg records +, 26gig size table dumps and dynamic sites.
Don’t see myself suddenly dropping a bunch of cash to start using MicroSlop products, so maybe .net is a bad example, but bearing in mind that I mostly do my developments from scratch so have full control over what is used, why and when would I use the other languages?
Am I missing something important and if so what should I focus on next?
If you are simply looking for something new, I recommend Ruby on Rails.
There seems to ALWAYS be jobs specifically seeking experience in RoR and I found it a lot of fun after spending “a lifetime” with PHP/MySQL/HTML/CSS/JS.
You are already running on Windows? Then you do not have to pay for anything to develop in .NET. A dozen free tools from Microsoft for developing in .NET are readily available. Anyways here: NetTuts+ Article That should help clear up most misconceptions about .NET you have.
I am a long term PHP user, was my first language and one I continue to use. However, I am fully enjoying C# (aka., flagship .NET language) along with the MVC framework for ASP.NET.