Service Pack 6:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/download...p6/default.aspx

List of bug fixes:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;834001

i dont get why people would use VC if there are free tools avail ... what about Watcom's GPL compiler?

Careful with this one guys, I wouldn't install it yet since you will lose support with the processor pack.

Maybe because the free tools aren't as good?

Free software does not necessarily mean high quality software, and for some people, high quality is more important.

GCC is pretty good. It just doesn't have a nifty IDE.

yes, once I installed the processor pack, some programs did not work correctly anymore on my Athlon XP, but still worked ok(?) on a Celeron.

Now this is strange,
They release a service pack for VS6 but none for VS.NET 2002 or 2003?

Why do you find that strange? VS6 has been around for quite some time, while the .NET stuff is relatively new. I expect they'll release a service pack for VS.NET in the future, but apparently they haven't found enough bugs to justify one yet.

EDIT: Mixed-up VS6 and VS.NET.

VS6 is a different product line. They don't release service packs for Win XP when they release Service Pack for Win 2000. It is just the same thing.