Rick..

Good points.

When I say goal, I mean where MS wants to be in a few years. Right now, the learning curve is a like a vertical line. No doubt it is tough stuff. Whether MS gets there or not, I don't know. In a few years, the product will have matured a little, training courses will be out there, methodologies will be out there, etc.

I do believe that developer communities do rise to the occasion. At the same time, I don't neccessarily think the problems with .Net now will exist 2 years from now.

Is it too complicated now? Perhaps. It is also new, on the bleeding edge. While I am not buying into all of the MS marketing crap, I am willing to be optimistic. Why? Because the development community will find a way to make the stuff work. The development community got COM to a decent level and I think the Developer Community will rise to the occasion here.

Given the bet MS has placed on .Net, I don't think failure is an option. Whether .Net's architecture is misguided or not is another issue all-together.

Time will tell....