Lately, i have been reading a lot the argument that Neo will catch on because it offers the developer an easy way to develop contracts using already popular languages instead of a new high level language as Ethereum requires.
Solidity, Ethereum's language, is not difficult to learn as someone might think. Its more of a scripting language such as javascript. For a coder that presents no real difficulty.
So the point that Neo offers an advantage because the developer does not have to learn a new language is not that great. It's more of a marketing trick. Sometimes it is even more beneficial for a new protocol to have its own language, customised for its needs. With Neo, there will have to be an interpreter that translates different languages to the underlying protocol,which offers another level of complexity. While Ethereum, offers a single way for the coder to talk to it.
When programming in a new technology the biggest hurdle is to learn how the protocol works, the language is just the syntax and the grammar, which most of the times they are similar between high level languages.
Neo will have an advantage for the programmers! if it offers an easier approach into programming contracts than in Ethereum. It is not the language that matters it is how easy it is to program contracts and such.
I think the most important aspect that might hint to the success of Neo is that according to multiple interviews of its founder, it seems that the government of China is backing the project. That to me is more interesting than the programming language.
Just my 2 cents on the subject, from a coders perspective.
