>I have been hearing mid 2001 for VS.NET release, but saw this in a DevX newsletter: "With the second beta of Visual Studio.NET due around mid-year and
>production releases of VS.NET and the .NET Framework expected by
>year's end, it's critical to start learning about these new tools now."

In the case of VB, wait for the next beta (I have read july which sounds like your readings). Too many things will change (object name, class name, ...).