Average Rating: 
Rating: - The Best Studio ensemble but not perfect.
This latest release by Microsoft is the best studio package money can buy. But, there are some shortcomings, Where is the VC++ .Net Forms designer? No doubt a ploy by Microsquash to gently twist the arms of VC++ programmers to at least consider using their proprietary new language Visual C#(Sharp) as their new primary language.(VC# .Net has a Forms Designer)
Visual Basic .Net is now a joy to use relative to previous versions with the many new powerful code features.(ADO.NET is here to stay, ready or not, painful at first, but like Hell Week in football, you get used to it.)
Visual C# seems interesting, a shotgun-marriage of VB and VC++(Good Lord!)
Still waiting for my free copy of MS JAVA# .Net to arrive.(A coupon comes in the box)
The IDE is the best ever made by any software manufacturer. SUPERB IDE!
Multitude of new features in IDE that make programming life easier.The Dynamic Help feature(used with code editor and forms designer is very handy) If you are still using Visual Studio 6 I highly recommend the purchase of Visual Studio .Net Pro.
Rating: - This is a good product
It provides for a set of objects that are common for the three languages, when dealing with windows. The only reason I do not give it 5 stars is because in the C++ realm you cannot visually place components on a form in .NET, but must do it manually. The IDE has one particular component that stands out in my mind. You can take methods in your source listing and actually close or hide the code for these methods that you do not want to see. This is much like the Windows Explorer Program, when dealing with drives and folders. It allows you to easily find and concentrate on the code that is important to you at the moment. Overall it is a fine product and Microsoft has done, in my opinion, a good job.
Rating:  - .NET .GET
This studio is leagues beyond the last. Microsoft is easing the burden of developers by simplifying distributed application development using .NET. Sure, for instance, you can go in and manually write the low level COM interface connectors if you prefer to have the "stick shift" control and specific performance attributes etc., or you can rely on the built in functionality of .NET and speed the development process. It seems that with this platform there is a bit of a learning curve even for the most experienced developers because of the great differences. But the online help is dynamic and useful when you get stuck on something. Visual Basic is not Visual Basic now. They seemed to have completely renovated the way VB works. The Common language Runtime (CLR) makes it possible to create solutions by interweaving any of the languages included with the studio. I believe there is a way to import 3rd party or future MS designed languages as well. So if one language is better at a specific task, then you can switch to it. The integrated development environment (IDE) is meant to maximize developer productivity. In using it, I haven't experienced the contrary. I must mention that I do like the flexibility of working on web applications in .NET. You can use a grid layout like a form builder, or the flow layout like a web page editor. I noticed a couple of funny things so far, but not worth mentioning. It takes some getting used to, but this is certainly worth it.
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