Hi, Chris,

I have great respect for Whil Hentzen and all that he's done, but I don't share his perspective. I think his views on/experiences with MS Products, Open Source, Linux, etc. factored into some strong and (IMO) exaggerated comments.

I'll admit that the early publications on .NET weren't great, but they've improved greatly. There are some gems out there, which I've listed at the end. Yes, there are certainly some duds, but I use reviews on Amazon to help with my purchasing (keeping in mind there are always some outlier reviews).

I own 10 books on .NET. At an average price of about $50, that's an investment of $500. I've used most of them from periodically to frequently, so the phrase 'unmitigated disaster' doesn't apply to me.

There's no question that the .NET community doesn't have quite the same characteristics as the VFP community, which has always been very unique and special. There's TONS of educational and how-to stuff on the web for .NET...it's a matter of finding it.

I'm finding that over time, the .NET forum here is becoming a good FAQ. Yesterday I ran into a roadblock with reflection, and did a text search...and found multiple posts from Bonnie and a few others that gave me what I needed.

Since you said you were starting .NET, here are some titles to consider:

VFP for .NET Developers (Kevin McNeish/Cathi Gero)
C# Essentials (O'Reilly Press)
C# Class Design Handbook (Wrox...this, I believe, has been redone by aPress)
Professional Crystal Reports for VS.NET (Wrox)
Essential ADO.NET (Bob Beauchemin)
Programming C# (O'Reilly press)
MS Press ADO.NET Reference (huge hardcover, goes for about $60, very good)

Also, there are some other good titles from aPress and O'Reilly.

The books on WinForms are OK but not spectacular. However, this is a GREAT site for stuff on WinForms

http://www.syncfusion.com/FAQ/WinForms/

Code Magazine (www.code-magazine.com) has good .NET coverage.

As far as any 'concerns'...I worked with VFP for years and started in .NET about 2 years ago. While I'd like to learn Java and get more involved in Linux, there's only so much time. So I've decided to make VFP and .NET my calling cards.

I live near Philadelphia, and I regularly see VFP and .NET jobs. I think MS realizes it needs to make .NET more accessible and easier to swallow for developers moving from other tools - I believe the enhancements in Whidbey will reflect their committment to making things a bit easier and the learning curve a bit smoother.

HTH,
Kevin