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Rating: 
Summary: Shameless cashing-in
Review: ... I bought three books in this series - this, Web Applications in the Microsoft.NET Framework and The Microsoft.NET Framework - all three went straight back to Amazon, since there's nothing here that hasn't been around since last summer - I have rarely felt so ripped off. Mostly these books are transcripts of interviews that you can find on the site anyway - there's nothing of interest to developers that you don't already know in far greater detail already. I wouldn't pay five bucks for these, never mind thirty. Shame on you Microsoft.
Rating: 
Summary: A Different Approach Than Other Reviewers.
Review: I am going to take a different approach on the new Microsoft books than most reviewers. I am sure most will pan these books as pure drivel, but I am going to give them an average rating. Let's look at the reasoning for both sides.The Content: Visual Studio.Net: Build Web Applications Faster and Easier Using Web Services and XML Unified IDE Maximizes Developer Productivity Preparing Your Visual Basic 6 Applications For the Upgrade to Visual Basic.Net Visual Basic for the Microsoft .Net Framework C# Introduction and Overview Sharp New Language: C# Offers the Power of C++ and the Simplicity of Visual Basic Programming in C#; Technobabble (from the MSDN Show) C#: A Message Queueing Application Introducing JScript.Net I am certain that most of the people who pan this book is probably pretty peeved that you can get the content from the MSDN site. This is true. If you want to read online, do not buy this book, as most of the articles are easily accessible. Given this, the price is also a bit steep for the content, but this might be warranted by the nice picture of needle nose pliers on the cover (LOL). ;-> Now, what about the content. The articles are good articles. The best of the lot is probably the Visual Studio.Net article in the first chapter. If you get MSDN magazine, do not buy this book for this article alone, as it comes from the September 2000 issue. Positives: The articles are decent articles, esp. the upgrading VB 6 article and both of the C# articles. The VB article has the newer version (updated online last month?), so it is still a good set of guidelines. Negatives: No new content, although some has been updated. Most easily found for free on the web. Awfully thin for the price. If you are in the habit of printing out articles rather than read online, or you are going on a trip and need a read, this is not a bad choice. I would search for the lowest price, as it is hard to warrant spending a large amount on content you can find elsewhere. My personal opinion is I am going to hold onto the books. I have been meaning to read most of the material in the book, and have not taken the time. Comparing this to some of the 1 day .Net seminars I have been getting info on, the book has more material than some and costs a lot less. My guess is Microsoft needs to get in the game to bring some more notice to .Net. As most books are designed to come out about the time the product ships, this beta book brings some notice to the Framework and its tools.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Waste Your Money
Review: I purchased this book thinking that it would take off where the Wrox books left off (since it is a MS product), but I was very disappointed to find that not only is this book very small (which means it cannot cover the breadth of the .NET framework), it is not much more than a bunch of MSDN articles and reprints of the help & readme files from beta 1. I expected a lot more since MSDN magazine touted these books as a good technical resource. If you're looking for an in-depth resource for .NET, stick with the Wrox books for now.
Rating:
Summary: Beta 2 changes everything
Review: I started out giving this book a three star rating, as the articles are not that bad. Unfortunately, very little of the content has been updated for beta 2. There is still some content that is very useful for understanding the basics of .Net, but it is laced with material that only applies to beta 1. As such, it is really hard to recommend this book any more. If Microsoft would publish an errata, to cover the changes for beta 2, this might be a slightly different story.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely Obsolete...
Review: I understand it is a "pre Beta 2" so it should be removed from active selling.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely Obsolete...
Review: I understand it is a "pre Beta 2" so it should be removed from active selling.
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