 <p>+1 good question Josh</p> <p>I've tried the Mono stuff, and SharpDevelop, but I think the answer to your question might just be <strong>Visual Studio 2010</strong>.</p> <p>I understand the desire to leave the Microsoft walled garden, I've felt it myself, and in that scenario, where you want to explore outside Microsoft, then of course there are many alternatives, but even those don't feel as complete as Visual Studio (I'm thinking <strong>Eclipse</strong>, <strong>XCode</strong>, the <strong>Adobe Flash</strong> environment to name a few interesting environments which are kinda fun to play with)</p> <p>But in the Microsoft world, I really believe they're attitude towards development is very progressive, and fresh. Every Visual Studio iteration feels fresh, no more so than VS 2010, and I think currently other alternatives in the MS world are just playing catch up.</p>