Should I use Java or .NET for web development?

Question

Which of these two platforms/ecosystems are better for writing web applications/websites?

I am not interested in language features, but rather in the available tools like: Monorail, MVC.NET, NHibernate, etc. These kinds of tools are usually used to build modern, data-driven, AJAX enabled websites.

Assume the choice of platform is up to you. Operating system does not matter.

Answer 1

Neither. It all depends on your personal preference and what you're comfortable with. You'll get the job done with both.

EDIT

To more directly address the tools issue you raise after your edit, you can compare things like that fairly directly:

+--------------------+------------+-----------+
| Tool \ Environment | .NET       | Java      |
+--------------------+------------+-----------+
| Web framework      | .NET MVC   | Struts    |
| ORM Mapper         | NHibernate | Hibernate |
| Unit testing       | NUnit      | JUnit     |
+--------------------+------------+-----------+

...and as a matter of fact, a lot of the tools (NHibernate and NUnit are both examples) originated in the Java world before being ported and utilized in .NET land.

Answer 2

It depends... which one are you most proficient at? That's the one.