>I am getting confused on the Visual Studio terminology, platforms and such.
>
>Is it called "Visual Stuido" or is it called ".NET", or "Visual Studio .NET" or what? Perhaps the ".NET Framework" runs on top of "Visual Studio"? Could someone use "Visual Studio" without using ".NET Framework" (even though it may not be smart, but is it doable?)
>
>Does ".NET" really always mean ".NET Framework"?
>
>If I were to the the MM .NET Framework, would I not use the Microsoft .NET framework at all, or does MM .NET run on top of it?
>
>Please help me as a beginner researching this as I consider moving from VFP to "whatever it's called"

Interesting question. :) In addition to what others said, Microsoft did everything possible to mud the issue :)

Initially, MS even could not give the clear explanation to what .Net is for several years. Some people may remember that Microsoft commercial going like: ".Net connects users, computers, services..." etc.) This link: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/dot_NET.html illustrates the issue. And there is still Visual Studio 6 (which is not .Net).

MS was applying (and removing) .Net label to some products which had nothing to do with .Net. They called the language Visual Basic.Net and recently started to refer it as just Visual Basic. Probably MS considers the original Visual Basic dead enough for now.:)

Similar things happen with other labels, like "Windows Live". Can anybody tell what Windows Live really is? :)

My take is that this kind of names are being chosen to make a nice umbrella for any kind of modern vaporware they are trying to sell. I would not be surprised if tomorrow we see Notepad.Net, since it's possible to write .Net programs with it. There is already Paint.NET (which is actually a nice and easy application).

:-)