David Laribee wrote about "alternative" .NET development or ALT.NET. He believes in using the best tool for the job, whether is is from Microsoft, the open source community, or somewhere else.
This struck a chord with me, because it's how I like to work. I am a little worried though. In the Microsoft development world, using the status quo (the Microsoft tools) is usually the expected way to do things. It is the mainstream. I'm worried that continuing to use alternative tools will hurt my career.