>So what does someone that is just starting with VB do? It really is a problem. On the VB forums folks say.... "go ahead and learn it... there will be lots of VB work still out there and lots of legacy code to support" Others say ... "drop it and pick up the new version or better yet c#"

Personally, for someone that wants to make money doing apps, I'd recommend either Delphi, Java, or VFP right now. Starting VB.NET is probably a poor choice, because it has no advantages over any other CLR app, and C# (another CLR app available in the same box) is being hailed as much more stable and elegant. MS wasted alot of money on VB.NET, IMO:

MS said VB.NET is avialable for VB users to jump on to teh CLR while stilling maintaining their VB investment (all the time and money the users and companies have put into learning and using VB). An MS representitive has been quoted saying this. Well, the way things have been panning out, the migration process from VB and VB.NET will probably be as difficult as it would to go from VB to the more stylish C#. So why even bother with VB.NET? MS knew this would happen, they're not dumb. Hence, the only reason VB.NET exists is the same reason MS is starting to suffer: they don't give a damn about users. They found a way to get a population of 3 million VB users to migrate to .NET, wether or not its beneficial to the developer or his or her end users.

When Bill G. says on TV: "You haven't seen anything yet," does that mean its gonna get worse? How depressing.