ChilliHead,

I find myself in a similar position, but looking the other way - maybe taking on board more MS skills when (up until now) I've been strictly Linux, Perl, HTML, MySQL, etc. However, I'm thinking of moving to another part of the UK and my initial reconaissance shows me that VB and NT skills are in demand in some areas, so I'd take that sort of job in preference to none at all.

But if you can afford it, take the Perl job - I've never, ever regretted that I can market my Unix skills, and despite the MS marketing there's massive demand for C/Perl/Unix. When you've seen a warehouse full of Sun boxen, with just one rack of NT boxes, you'll understand ;-)

I too have a family to support. Sometimes that means ignoring the safe bet and taking a long-term risk. When I committed heavily to Linux in '95, I did that and it was worth it. Nowadays, that's less of a risk and more of a smart move ;-)