title: ArrayList vs List<object>
body: <p>I saw this reply from Jon on <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/386500/initialize-generic-object-with-unknown-type">Initialize generic object with unknown type</a>:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>If you want a single collection to
    contain multiple unrelated types of
    values, however, you will have to use
    <code>List&lt;object&gt;</code></p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I'm not comparing <code>ArrayList</code> vs <code>List&lt;&gt;</code>, but <code>ArrayList</code> vs <code>List&lt;object&gt;</code>, as both will be exposing elements of type <code>object</code>. What would be the benefit of using either one in this case?</p>
  
  <p>EDIT: It's no concern for type safety here, since both class is exposing <code>object</code> as its item. One still needs to cast from <code>object</code> to the desired type. I'm more interested in anything other than type safety.</p>
  
  <p>EDIT: Thanks Marc Gravell and Sean for the answer. Sorry, I can only pick 1 as answer, so I'll up vote both.</p>