Thanks to all who replied. Thanks to NickThissen who pointed out the free trial option. In point of fact, the context is that we will probably be buying the complete Visual Studio package anyway so we'll be able to look at the real thing.

Need for, or size of runtime support is not an issue. I'm not a language snob and language nuances and/or coolness of .NET is not an issue. I've programmed professionally in a score of languages and language nuances are not an issue (Basic and C++ are practically twins if you've MUMPS, SNOBOL, APL-V, or FORTH!)

Just wanted to be sure there hadn't been any kind of downgrade in the visual development experience when moving from VB 6 to VB .NET.