I haven't used it, but I have heard from several personal sources that Rosetta Stone is excellent. I was looking at it on the internet and it did look good and well-rounded. I may be buying it.

I have gone through Pimsleur's first course in French and I think it is excellent. It really allows you to hear and understand and gives excellent speaking and pronunciation practice. At the end of those lessons I felt I had moved forward significantly, and I will probably buy the next course to continue. The one drawback is that you don't learn to read with Pimsleur. The technique is to teach you to learn as a child would learn, and for speaking and understanding it really does that well, much better than I had imagined.

In the end I think I may be doing both courses (if I decide to actually move to France instead of just taking vacations there). Pimsleur is more expensive but can really get you speaking, and with a decent accent, very effectively. Rosestta Stone looks like it will additionally help with the reading (because French words simply do not look like they sound!), but I can't tell if the speaking and comprehension will be as good.

Dvora