>For answering the following, consider that my level of knowledge in .NET is that of a newbie.
>
>In Visual FoxPro, I have seen that a lot of work can be saved by using third-party frameworks. I assume the situation is similar in .NET.
>
>Is this true? Or does the .NET framework already have most of what is needed to build complete applications?
>
>I have seen references to .NET Mere Mortals. Can you tell me about your experiences with this?
>
>What other options (either freeware or commercial) are available?

Sometimes I think it's more important to have a 3rd party framework for .NET than it is for VFP. The problem with .NET is that it's so big and there are so many different ways to accomplish the same task. My experience with Mere Mortals .NET has been very good.