Maximum PC

I got my MSDN Newsletter in my inbox and ran across this segment:

Visual Studio .NET Express


Apparently, in an effort to make VS.NET more accessible (and enjoyable) to the developer hobbyist, enthusiasts, novices, and students. Microsoft launched their "express" series to fulfill those needs. I'm beta testing the software, once I can get a good feel for it, I'll write a quick review.

BTW, Visual Studio.NET 2005 is coming soon, this will force me to switch to the new C# 2.0, which by the way has caught my eye as of late. The introduction of generics will definitely introduce some better programming concepts for me.

this sucks... just a few days ago, WROX released its new book on VB.NET 2003... and soon I will have to buy a 2005 edition?

Not necessarily, the new VS.NET (a.k.a. Whidbey) has some new things, but your knowledge of VB.NET shouldn't have to be replaced. Besides that, you should download the VB.NET Express and play around with it, it will give you the chance to view VB.NET 2005 code. I'm still playing around with Visual C# Express, thus far, I've made a cheap web browser. But overall, the code isn't all that far away from the C# I already know.