If you are a C++/MFC developer and thinking of migrating to the the .NET platform. Number 1 - DO IT; Number 2 - USE C#; Number 3 - BUY THE STANDARD VERSION. I, too, was a C++/MFC developer for 5 years. Then, as luck would have it, a project came up where we could flirt with C#, and in literally half the time, we had a more advanced prototype than our C++/MFC prototype. The big hitters were intuitiveness of the language, speed of the compiles, auto-documenation generation (check-out NDoc software), and profession delivery via .msi files.

The professional version is totally over kill for what most businesses need and has more features than you'll ever use. Don't waste you money playing the I-might-use-that-feature-somtime-in-the-future game. The standard edition allows for the complete development of any size software. The 2003 version has fixed a number of quirks found in the last version (which was amazingly stable for a 1.0). One thing to remember if migrating form VC#.NET 2002 to 2003 is that any project build under 2002 must be converted to 2003 and those changes can't be undone. This really isn't an issue for mose people, including myself.