CrossRoads:
Looks like total overkill for adding a couple PIR sensors to tell when your cat is at the door waiting to come in.
LOL That's a great way to describe the average project around here.
robtillaart:
Personally I think the mbed platform - http://mbed.org/ - is more interesting if more performance is needed.
I had a choice between a mbed and Netduino Plus at one point, I got the mbed because the Netduino Plus was sold out. I think both are great, both of these guys have ethernet built right in, which is awesome.
Anyways, I hate it when people needlessly bring politics when anything involves Microsoft. I'd rather see engineers objectively decide based on the product more.
Visual Studio is big but it's really nice, I've used it for Windows app development, AVR Studio 5, and ASP.NET. It shines at making you productive.