Future of python on Windows?

[Peter Hansen]

Thomas Runge wrote:
> 
> But currently I am worrying about the future of Python if one important
> platform of the future (.NET) is running the risk of being badly supported!

Isn't .NET just a *virtual* platform?  That is, nobody is planning
to make .NET the entire operating system, just another of possibly
many virtual machines/platforms running inside the Windows OS.  If
that's true, Python will continue to run just fine, even if nobody
ever makes .NET support the language.

Put another way, what advantage would there be to running a Python
program under .NET?  Why would I want to learn another proprietary
platform when Python will run fine under Windows without me having
to learn anything much about Windows itself.

-Peter