>>11
The language itself is generally fine. SYntactically, its just java with some more event stuff added on top. However, there is only one option when developing with it - Visual Studio. Were this not the case, I would have a much higher opinion of it. Visual Studio is the shortbus IDE.
Yeah, there are a few other alternatives, but none are all that mature yet. From what I hear, the JetBrains guys are making a .NET IDE, but that hasnt shown up yet. You are also (effectively) tying yourself to one platform. Yeah, Mono exists, but I hear its not really easy to get cross compilation working.
Learning Microsoft languages first can take you down the dark path, and I never advise it. Their tools are built to make rapid development (not good development) possible, and its not exactly easy to learn good development practices when so many crappy shortcuts (like designers) are available to you. Why bother learning how to make controllers work when you can just use a clicky Form Designer - a designer that generates code so horrid that in VS2005, it actually hides it in a seperate partial class file ....