>All I wanted to do was provide balance to the argument that folks should not even bother with investing the time right now.

In your opinion then, what is the disadvantage to waiting 6 months to a year from now before diving into .NET?

The Pros are:
You are not going to be surprised when this new platform does not work like you expected
You will be able to make a more informed decision after letting the technology go through the runs
The training material will get much better as more practical experience is obtained
You will not enter the job market as yet another zero experience .NET developer
If you wait until VS.NET2, more RAD tools should in place, and the learning curve will be flatter

I just can't find any major disdvantages to giving the product 6 to 12 months for teh vast majority of developers.