Rating: 
Summary: Very nice features, but value is ratio of quality and price
Review: The concept of the virtual machine is nothing new. The design of .NET would solve many problems associated with DLL and COM. Programs compiled with .NET is slower because Just-In-Time compiler must compile the code before the execution. Loading time for new application appears to be around 2 - 4 seconds in my system(K7 700MHZ). The initial execution memory requirement for a very small program appears to be around 6 - 12 MB. The memory requirement drops down to 1MB soon as you minimize the app (some type of memory clean up kicks in) The class library is object oriented, and all examples are in either C# or VB. If you are a C++ user, it will require some additional learning time.
The developing and debugging environment is easy to use. The debugger even let you trace the compiled x86 assembler code. Learning the system takes few days (very easy, but there are many objects) and experienced programmer can be productive in a week.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent design work
Review: The concept of the virtual machine is nothing new. The design of .NET would solve many problems associated with DLL and COM. Programs compiled with .NET is slower because Just-In-Time compiler must compile the code before the execution. Loading time for new application appears to be around 2 - 4 seconds in my system(K7 700MHZ). The initial execution memory requirement for a very small program appears to be around 6 - 12 MB. The memory requirement drops down to 1MB soon as you minimize the app (some type of memory clean up kicks in) The class library is object oriented, and all examples are in either C# or VB. If you are a C++ user, it will require some additional learning time.
The developing and debugging environment is easy to use. The debugger even let you trace the compiled x86 assembler code. Learning the system takes few days (very easy, but there are many objects) and experienced programmer can be productive in a week.
Rating: 
Summary: Great start for this new "version"!!
Review: The ease of use compared to VS 6 and before is the first thing one notices. So many great controls that make programming more fun because much of the code is well within those controls.
Only 4 stars though because of the amount of time and effort that was necessary getting my PC up to speed to be able to run VS.NET. Of course it will work with older setups and less memory - but I figured now was a good time to upgrade to Windows XP Pro. It also isn't supported by anything older than Windows 98 as I understand. Also no drawing tools - something new called GDI+ in which you draw programmatically - I am having to get used to that!
I am an MCP (VB6 Desktop) and a webmaster and between VB.NET, ADO.NET and ASP.NET, the programming future looks exciting.
To help you get started - go to the LearnVisualStudio.NET web site which has great video lessons that helped me a lot.
Give that and new VS.NET a try!
Rating: 
Summary: Price to high!
Review: This product is NOT so revolutionary as Microsoft tries to present. Anyway, even writing a web tools with a help of it will limit you on MS platforms...
Rating:
Summary: .NET - .GET
Review: 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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