.NET Compiler

I have been using VB 6 for a couple of years now and I am thinking of upgrading to .NET. My question is this. Many people around the world do not have or have even heard of the .NET framework, obviously this would present a problem when distributing applications. Is there an option in any of the .NET languages to compile the source code into native code, which does NOT require the .NET framework to run? I heard that VC .NET had the ability to compile into .NET code or standard Window code, is this true for all the other languages, specifically VB .NET?

Thanks for your help!

There is a possibility to compile to native code instead of IL, but this does not mean you don't need the .NET Framework anymore.
Just like compiling to native code in VB6 does not mean you don't need MSVBVM60.dll anymore.

If you create an application in VB.NET, you MUST have the Framework installed to run the executable.

the .NET framework must be installed, apparently however (I havn't done this yet) the Setup project in VB.NET allows you to create setup projects which include a 'special'.NET redistributable. This will install everything the client needs to run your app on the client computer. Im not sure if it intalls it in your app folder so it may install it more than once if you have multiple installs
;)