First Microsoft developer conference-thing

Microsoft held a "Security Summit" in Perth today. The developer track had little to do with security, but that suited me. It was all about Visual Studio 2005, (including Team System, the new all-encompassing team version). Impressive and highly practical for companies. I bet its expensive. For many companies, why would you get anything else ? I mean, I like to think that the software industry can be like a gentleman's war, competing fairly, but when MS owns most of the soldiers (and many of the best), how can this happen ? And less vendors is certainly more convenient and encourages interoperability - though certainly not desirable in an ethical big-picture sort of way, of course.
I borrowed the MCSD book set from a friend too, so I'm set to learn C#.