>What do I use to develop if I have the framework? As I understand it, it is one big bunch of classes, but if I don't get VB.NET or C#.NET or VS.NET... Then what?

VB.NET and C# are in the framework. You can use Notepad to write everything, and command line stuff to do builds and compiles. With ASP.NET you don't need to compile anything though, just drop your text files into a virtual directory.

As far as project management, debugging, intellisense, and all that, its in VS.NET. VS.NET is simply a tool (a pretty nice one with a slick IDE if I might add) to write against the Framework.

If you're in Tom's position and just want to start playing and learning, the framework might suffice until you got enough bucks to buy the tool.