Opinions Needed: Microsoft's Expression Studio

[captain canuck]

So, I completely missed out on the discontinuation of FrontPage due to having switched to DreamWeaver CS3 for much of my web design needs; however, I'm considering taking a look at Expression Web - in particular because I was also oblivious enough to miss DreamSpark (https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/), wherein it seems I can get the full version of Expression Studio free due to student status at an eligible University.

Obviously I can't really go wrong with totally free software of any sort, unless it's gonna screw up my system. I'm inclined to have faith that it won't, but opinions to the contrary are welcome.

Anyone familiar with Expression Web? How much like FP is it? Is it better or worse overall? Will I be able to take pages done in FrontPage and edit them without having to muck about with many alterations to make 'em workable in Expression Web?

[pieeater]

I've been using expression web for afew months and I have gotten to prefer it over dreamweaver. It is alot more standards based (which is surprising being from microsoft).

If you are looking to use silerlight or PHP I suggest you download the beta version, as that has silverlight support and PHP intellisense if you have PHP installed on your computer.

But to answer some of your questions expression web is deffinatley better than front page. I've never tried to edit sites made in front page, but since its made by the same company I cant imagine its too hard, apart from getting pages up to industry standards.

Sorry if this is a rant and makes no sense as I am incredibly drunk, but I hope it has helped you.