So I've been pondering upgrading to .NET 2005 (or 2008) personal edition
from VB6 Pro, since I'll need to learn it eventually. Anyhow, I was wondering what differences (besides the code base) lay between the two, and what kind of functionality will I lose (or gain) from upgrading to .NET 2005 or 2008 personal edition from VB6 pro?

I read somewhere that .NET personal edition only supports local databases. if I use ODBC, would it matter if it's local or remote?

I really don't want to pay the $1,500 for the pro edition with MSDN, or have the limited funcationality of the express edition.