For one, CLR was designed from the start to support multiple languages, and Java didn't have any major language targeting the VM until like 2004-5.
I can't agree with this. Jython and Rhino started in 1997. JRuby started in 2001. Those are all ports of fairly major languages, and all saw significant use before 2004.
I can't agree with this. Jython and Rhino started in 1997. JRuby started in 2001. Those are all ports of fairly major languages, and all saw significant use before 2004.