Not entirely orthogonal. Orkut's original C#/ASP.NET/SQL Server stack was an awkward fit for Google's predominantly Linux-based infrastructure, which made scaling and operating it more difficult. Almost all of Google's other web services were written in tight, optimized C++. David Jeske, Orkut's former technical architect, described problems with the .NET runtime, difficulties integrating with Google's infrastructure, and an eventual migration to Java and C++.
That doesn't mean C#'s execution speed was the primary bottleneck. In fact, Jeske's team reportedly made dramatic performance improvements while retaining .NET. But arguing that the choice of technology had no relationship to Orkut's scalability problems is just as misleading as blaming everything on C#.
That doesn't mean C#'s execution speed was the primary bottleneck. In fact, Jeske's team reportedly made dramatic performance improvements while retaining .NET. But arguing that the choice of technology had no relationship to Orkut's scalability problems is just as misleading as blaming everything on C#.