I am a full time ASM programmer, now 52, started programming at 15, who dives into VS when needed to prototype and trace through samples. I do a lot of driver development as well as GUI programming (always in pure ASM). I've worked at MS in Redmond, but only as a contractor, on the Ford Sync team (SDET III).
A recent catastrophic system crash forced me to upgrade to Win7 (I'm always the last to upgrade) which then enabled me to download the VS 2013 preview. I was in no hurry to do that because obviously it would be nothing special, just more of the same.
I was mistaken. VERY mistaken. VS 2013 is far and away the best thing I personally have ever seen MS produce. If somebody would have told me before using it how impressed I would be with it, I would not believe them. MS simply does not create products this finely and sensibly tuned to what the product's users actually do. I view it as a dramatic departure from the norm and most definitely something to write home about. Of course I'm jumping from VS 2008 straight to VS 2013 so I missed any gradual evolution to what 2013 is but still, in my book the product is nothing short of phenomenal. It flows with what the user does. It is so effortless to use. In a million ways it is pure quality and sheer common sense - not to mention an extremely classy and usable interface. Whoever designed all this stuff had to have made a serious direction change in how design decisions are made. It is not the same old kaka. To me it is the greatest success Microsoft has ever produced.