The company that I work for buys software for me to use in my home office. I have a new computer and have decided to buy my own software so that I own it and control it. Before I buy $1000 worth of Microsoft software I wanted your opinion.

The company that I work for owns and uses Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 Professional. When MS VFP 6.0 was released, they bought me Microsoft Visual FoxPro 6.0 to use in my home office. I want to buy my own Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 Professional so that I am fully compatible with the company that I work for.

I can buy the software for $550 - $1000. Am I making a $500 mistake buying this older software or should I be looking at the newer .NET versions or what? Confused. I don't see the company that I work for spending the money to upgrade from version 6.0 to 7.0 at this time. What do you think I should do? Thanks for the advice.