Comparing Java and .NET is unfair. Java was created in the 90's. .NET is way younger than that. .NET was created with Java in mind, and of course it's a better language.
It's only unfair if you consider Java as done and set in stone. But it doesn't have to be that way, and fortunately it isn't; Java is still improving by adopting ideas which have proven themselves to work in other programming languages. Java 8 is a better language today because of the obvious influence of C# (among others).
.NET was originally supposed to be an embrace... extend... extinguish strategy by Microsoft on Java wasn't it? I seem to remember when .NET first came out people saying that you could almost copy and paste C# and Java code back and forth.
I think J++ was Microsoft attempt at extending Java. According to wikipedia it was Microsoft's implementation of Java. After getting sued by Sun they moved on to .net where C# did look remarkably Java like initially but since it was incompatible with Java I wouldn't call .net a EEE strategy.