Microsoft is giving away Visual Studio Express absolutely free until November 2006! I’ve checked the license agreement and faq and it includes the redistribution license and allows commercial usage.
I haven’t gotten it installed yet but I’ve heard that some of the features of from the professional version are disabled but they are likely features that casual users like me won’t miss.
You can install it from the web or download CD images at the manual installation instructions page.
Paul Hutchinson's Blog 