I have the same questions that you have, is .net much better for me ?
I realy dont know because i Programmed in Clipper, C/C++, Delphi, FiveWin and now i use Visual Foxpro, and all that my clients needs i can do whith Visual Foxpro, even Internet Access to the database in another machine using static IP and MS-Sql Server.

My question is, can i use .Net and make my programming days more easy ?

I have something like 3.000 clients using my 38 systems and i never had t problem i could not soulve.

So make your words my word.