The .NET frameworks SDK, command-line compilers and tools are now available for free download. For people who also want a free IDE, SharpDevelop looks pretty good.
As far as being able to run .NET code on platforms other than Windows, today the news was that Mono project has ditched GPL and Intel and HP have joined the project as contributors. I don't know what other people think, but I think this is awesome news. Miguel and Ximian are very effective and pragmatic.
GotDotNet just released a simple in-browser WSDL browser, it is pretty easy to use. I just picked a few services from xmethods.com and pasted the WSDL URL into this form; it was just a few clicks to fully-working code that calls the web services. [Better Living Through Software]