Yeah you can program C++ and C apps without having to use the Net framework. Its only for C# and other things like that you have to use .Net Framework. GCC is progressing quite nicely. I would think that its at a point where its stable enough to be used for commercial code. Well version 3.3 is anyways, I dont know about 4.0 For IDE's codeblocks and eclipse look fairly nice, codeblocks can use your VC6 compiler or use GCC and eclipse naturally uses GCC. Visual Studio's interface is a little intimidating, but after a few weeks you'll get used to it and begin flying through the interface ;)