Wanting to Learn a Language

[hexpunK]

I have read the thread that gparent made, and it did help. I'm at college doing two programming courses as part of my main one, Event Driven Programming (Visual Basic), and Object Oriented Programming (Java). I wanted to learn a language that is slightly more flexible if possible, and my choice probably boils down to C#, as it suits the kind of thing I was hoping to develop (small utilities, nothing much). I have a choice of IDEs to use, being in college gives me access to the Dreamspark program, so I was wondering what IDE should I chose from there, I can pick from;

Visual Studio Professional '05/ '08
Visual Studio Ultimate '10 Beta 2
Visual C# Express '08
Or a open source/ freeware IDE that you could recommend.

If any of you have experience with these, could you possibly tell me any pros and cons, and compare them (The 2010 Beta probably isn't a good choice, end of). Of if there is a free IDE you prefer could you tell me what advantages you get of having it, I'd prefer one that lets me use it for other languages too, but it isn't too important. And if you are feeling kind enough, do you know any resources that could help me learn C#?, I can probably find these myself though.

[Ortzinator]

VS Pro 2008 obviously.

[efeX]

VS Pro 2008, '10 Beta 2.

[Shining_Sabe]

If you use C#, then definetally VS Pro 2008.
If you're going to dabble in C++ though, try Code::Blocks, especially if you're going to code multi-platform.

[turby]

[QUOTE=hexpunK;19275739]Visual Studio Professional '08
...
Visual C# Express '08[/QUOTE]

gee that's a tricky choice

[PvtCupcakes]

There is monodevelop if you want to check out a free one.
[url]http://monodevelop.com/[/url]

It'll give you more variety than just Visual Studio.
I don't know C# and I've never usedf monodevelop and I've not really used Visual Studio for much of anything, so I have no opinion on any of this.

[mdakin]

Code::Blocks :D

[turby]

[QUOTE=PvtCupcakes;19295622]There is monodevelop if you want to check out a free one.
[url]http://monodevelop.com/[/url].[/QUOTE]

Oh lawdz. Mono is decent, but MonoDevelop sucks ass.

[hexpunK]

[QUOTE=Shining_Sabe;19284737]If you use C#, then definetally VS Pro 2008.
If you're going to dabble in C++ though, try Code::Blocks, especially if you're going to code multi-platform.[/QUOTE]

For now I'm expecting to stay on Windows. But I'll probably be messing around with Linux if I ever get a PC a family member promised me :v: Or whenever I build a new PC. I'll probably go with VS Pro '08, if my Internet connection ever picks up enough for me to download it that is.