A little C++ work, Visual Studio or GCC?

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Now that I've once more become addicted to coding, I'm daring myself to start dabbling with come C++ and OpenGL.

I have got a copy of Visua C++ 6 but I was just wondering if I really should make the effort to overcome Studio's horrible interface and actually try and get used to it, or if anyone knows of a good replacement IDE which either uses Studio's compiler back-end, or has GCC progressed to the point where it's usable for production code?

** edit ** or should I bin my ageing VS 6.0 and get with the new groove and purchase .NET? Can I code using .NET without my apps requiring the .NET framework? Is .NET leaps and bounds better than 6.0?