[closed] What are salesforce.com and Apex like as an application development platform?

 I have recently discovered that salesforce.com is much more than an online CRM after coming across a Morrison's case study in which they develop a works management application. I've been trying it out with a view to recreating our own Works Management system on the platform.

My background is in Microsoft and .Net, and the obvious 1st choice would be asp.net. However, there's only really myself with .net experience and my manager with a more legacy Synergy programming background, and I am self taught and am looking at evaluating other RAD options (eg Ironspeed).

the nature of the business is in the main 2-5 concurrent construction type contracts that run for 3-5 yrs each, each requiring 15-50 system users. Traditionally we have used our character based Works Mangement system for everything and tweaked it for each contract. The Salesforce licensing model on the face of it suits this sort of flexibilty, but I'm worried about the development flexibilty/learning curve and all the issues that surround lock-in. There doesn't seem to be much neutral sober analysis of the platform on the web that isn't salesforce's own material/blogs

Has anyone any experience of developing an application on salesforce as compared to the more 'traditional' .Net route?