When the heck did .NET took over????

I was looking at job vacancies and all of them all said to the point of must have exp in C# or ASP (for web programming).

When the heck did Microsoft took over??? I though C++ and PHP were reigning still.

>>7
That was why I thought C# would be dropped because of its close tie with M$. C++ was independent and not-commercially developed but rather developed from an academic standpoint. C# was like Microsoft's way of controlling the language.

Anyone knos the major difference between C# and C++? IDE-wise, C# IDEs not just M$ products are they?