Attention MSDN Subscribers!
On November 18, 2005, Microsoft announced Upcoming
Content Changes that included the removal of Visual Studio 6.0,
Windows 2000, and Windows NT 4.0 from MSDN Subscriber Downloads, starting
December 16, 2005. The Sun settlement over Java was cited as the reason for
this change in product availability. However, that excuse was used two
years earlier as well, so it's not entirely clear how it's now an issue again.
Nor did they say on what basis they chose to leave VB6 available for download
until June 30, 2006.
Do you know where your old MSDN discs are?
Press / Web Coverage
- Microsoft makes C++, Visual Basic 6.0 moves, InfoWorld, 9 April 2008
- Developer Use of Visual Basic Plummets, eWeek, 29 November 2006
- Vista won't support older Visual Studio versions, InfoWorld, 26 September 2006
- Microsoft's Upcoming Vista To Support Legacy VB6 Apps, DevSource, 21 February 2006
- The Disaster Known As Visual Basic, Bitwise Magazine, 1 December 2005
- Will VB 9 Win Over the VB 6 Faithful?, eWeek, 10 October 2005
- MS Anti-Spyware built on MS Abandonware, The Register, 22 July 2005
- VB: Past, Present, Future, Bitwise Magazine, 1 July 2005
- Crossroads for VB6 Users, Computerworld, 20 June 2005
- Why VB6 still matters, Builder AU, 3 June 2005
- Soapbox – save our VB6!, VSJ News, 29 April 2005
- Making the case for continued support of Visual Basic 6.0, TechRepublic, 28 April 2005
- Migration Offer for VB6 Programmers, PowerBASIC.com, 19 April 2005
- REAL Software Welcomes Over 30,000 Visual Basic Developers to the REALbasic Community, Yahoo Financial News, 14 April 2005
- Microsoft Angers Developers By Boosting Support Costs For VB6, InformationWeek, 1 April 2005
- Real Software moves on VB6 developers, ZDNet Australia, 1 April 2005
- Is Redmond losing touch with its developers?, Builder AU, 29 March 2005
- Microsoft Details Pricing and Licensing for Visual Studio 2005 and Simplifies Microsoft Developer Network Subscriptions, Microsoft PressPass, 21 March 2005
- REAL Software Offers Free Upgrade to Stranded VB Users, Windows IT Pro, 21 March 2005
- Support Classic VB, VSM, 21 March 2005
- Visual Basic protest won't go away, Builder UK, 18 March 2005
- Microsoft Still Not Bending on 'Classic' VB Support, Microsoft Watch, 18 March 2005
- Sun, Microsoft look to appease developers, InfoWorld, 18 March 2005
- Developers Prolong Visual Basic Protest, eWeek, 17 March 2005
- Microsoft walks VB tight rope, CNET News.com, 16 March 2005
- Canadian developers debate the end of Visual Basic 6, ITBusiness.ca, 15 March 2005
- Developers slam Microsoft's Visual Basic plan, CNET News.com, 14 March 2005
- Users Push Microsoft to Extend VB6 Support, Computerworld, 14 March 2005
- Visual Basic Developers Revolt Against Microsoft, Slashdot, 12 March 2005
- Save Classic VB!, TechTrax, 12 March 2005
- Visual Basic developers revolting, ZDNet UK News, 11 March 2005
- Campaign to save Visual Basic 6 gathers support, InfoWorld, 10 March 2005
- Online Petition Asks Microsoft To Keep Supporting Visual Basic, .NET Developer's Journal, 10 March 2005
- Microsoft axes support for VB6, ComputerWeekly, 9 March 2005
- Microsoft MVPs Say They Want Old VB Back, eWeek, 9 March 2005
- Developers Petition Microsoft To Continue Support For VB6, InformationWeek, 8 March 2005
Opinions
- Dare Obasanjo, Microsoft Missing the Boat on Programming Language Trends
- Dan Mabbutt, Should Microsoft be sued for dropping support for VB 6?
- Jay Roxe, An Open Letter to the Community
- S. "Soma" Somasegar, "Rumors of my (VB6) demise..."
- William (Bill) Vaughn, Petitions and other Silliness
- Bill McCarthy, Will VB6 apps run on Longhorn?
- Brad McCabe, VB 6.0 Support Clarification
- Bill McCarthy, What they aren’t telling you about VB6 support
- Paul Vick, Save Ferris! I mean, VB6!
- David Berlind, First VB gets the axe. What's next COBOL?
- Jeff Atwood, The Slow Brain Death of VB.NET
- Kathleen Dollard, The "VB6 Petition"
- Stephen Bullen, Daily Dose of Excel
- Richard Grimes, VB Classic Petition
- Dan Appleman, Kibitzing and Commentary
- Robert Scoble, Scobleizer
- Rich Levin, The Blah-Blah Blog

Adoption / Migration
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"If you spend the money to upgrade to VB.NET, well, you just spent a lot of money to stand still. And companies don't like to spend a lot of money to stand still, so while you're spending the money, it probably makes sense to consider the alternatives that you can port to that won't put you at the mercy of a single vendor and won't be as likely to change arbitrarily in the future. So as soon as people with large code bases start hearing that they're going to have to work to port their apps from VB to VB.NET with WinForms, and then they start hearing that WinForms isn't really the future, the future is really this Avalon thing nobody has yet, they start wondering whether it isn't time to find another development platform."
- Joel on Software
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