First, get used to programming with classes, that means learning OOP and learning to think in it. Sorry Bryce, stick to something else if you don't like OOP.
Second it seems that .NET brings in a Namespace that Classes reside in. It is just an area to stick classes in, so the names won't conflict with a different namespace. Or rather instead of everything in the same namespace, you can define different namespaces. I think that C#.NET uses Namespace, I am not so sure about VB.NET yet, wait until the Beta is finished and then we shall know.
Also for VB.NET the way functions are called may change, it may be like this:
Dim s_Chars as String
Dim i_Count as Integer
s_Chars = "ABCDEFG"
i_Count = Len(s_Chars)
We may have this instead:
i_Count = s_Chars.Length
We may also have:
s_Chars.Text = "ABCDEFG"
OR
s_Chars.Text("ABCDEFG")
s_Chars.Text.Add("ABCDEFG")
As I said I haven't messed with VB.NET yet, but more on that when I get the BETA2 downloaded and set up correctly. The only thing that I know for sure is that everything I currently know about VB.NET and ASP.NET are wrong. I must unlearn all the VB 6.0 and ASP 3.0 stuff I know now and start over again.