Tracy,
Happy New Year, and a great appraisal IMHO.
Wearing my cynic hat, I foresee trouble. Seems there's more management interest in the concept of moving to NET as a tick in the box to satisfy the single customer, than in the best way to do it. Jeff is right: if decisions are made like this, developers will absorb any training on offer and will get to add NET experience to their CV, but there may not be much other value from all the effort. Never mind, before long MS will bring out the next great thing that will legitimize any lack of progress by justifying a restart...
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
