As strollin stated you might have been mistaken between Visual Studio and Visual Basic. Visual Studio is a development center, VB is a programming language. As far as trying to learn C, it is not totally abandoned, but I would not recommend learning it for its learning curve an declining in usability from the real world. They call its a programming language thats just above the Assembly Language, but learning C++ would be more realistic and easier. But if you want to learn it just cuz its difficult, then Objective C might be a better option, more difficult, more demanded (heard all apple ios are based on objective C).
Didnt mean to put in delima, if I did at all. As for the compiler, Visual Studio is the only one I have used, so far so good (not brilliant enough to point the flaws out yet hehe), but i am not sure if its free unless you have MSDNAA. wont comment on DEV C++ as i have no clue about it.. Good Luck!