I'm a long time Java developer who recently move to .NET. What I love about Java when it comes to this particular issue: open source, is how easy it is to get the source code, documentation, and to navigate around given 2 assumptions:

1) You're using Maven + Eclipse (haven't tried in other IDE)

2) The source code is available (in most cases, they are) in Maven repository

Here's a simple example: I'm using Spring and Guava and occasionally I'd like to navigate to the method I use. All I have to do is hit F3 on the method call and Maven will download the source code JAR (and the documentation JAR as well) and voila: I can easily see the source code and navigate around. Ditto with the dependency of the dependency.

I have to say that Maven + Eclipse provide massive productivity increase for me and my team.

Now, I did .NET in the past briefly back when .NET was in 2.0/3.0 era. I recalled it wasn't obvious how to associate even the core .NET library (Collections, etc) via VS.NET.

How easy it is to achieve a similar workflow in .NET these days?