Think about it, can you really quickly and effectively write or VB or .NET code without using Visual Studio? How about writing a Java program without Eclipse or some other Java IDE?

I can't speak to .NET but I've written plenty of Java and a little VB without any tool but a text editor. But then I worked in a *nix/Perl environment before I ever touched Java or VB so I didn't need the crutch - didn't like it actually.