I have recently been devoting every waking hour not doing something else like working to learning as much as I can about ASP.NET 2.0. I have not traditionally been impressed with Microsoft's feeble attempts at creating a web development platform. ASP.NET 2.0 is not part of that group obviously. Microsoft went from having the horrible FrontPage as their best option for web site development this killer ASP.NET 2.0 development platform that is actually viable. Many people I have talked to love ASP.NET. Now I know why, it is worthy of any praise. It has its issues to be sure, but it is one of the best development ideologies I have seen in ages.

Many programmers out there still hold to PHP like the world is ending (me included), and think ASP.NET is bunk. I am a huge PHP fan and still use it primarily for many projects, but I must confess that ASP.NET has really made me think hard about adding it to my usual arsenal of web development skills. If you still haven't checked it out, you should, and trust me, I was a skeptic until I started using it. My personal favorite is using ASP.NET 2.0 in Visual Studio 2005. You can also download the Visual Web Developer Express Edition which will let you build ASP.NET applications without sacrificing many essential features.