>>...I will probably take the first step, in time, very very slowly, and dip my toes into anything but Microsoft (most probably something LAMP), unless there's a "they're paying me like crazy to learn this stuff" in it. Just a statement about my pick, after so many have stated theirs.
>
>Sounds like a decision based on emotion.

Experience may be another eWord. As they say, you can screw up a smart guy only six times by the same trick, by the seventh time he has learned already.