Microsoft promised to support VB6 long after the release of .NET, but their actions are telling a different story.
by Jonathan Goodyear
October 6, 2003
icrosoft's policy for supporting versions of their software has historically been current version minus 2. That policy was supposed to be relaxed and extended when Microsoft released the .NET Framework and Visual Studio .NET, because they represented such a radical break from the COM roots of the Visual Studio 6 (more specifically VB6) world. Shortly after the official release of .NET, Ari Bixhorn, the Product Manager for Visual Basic .NET, stated that Microsoft planned to provide high level support for VB6 through 2005, and limited support through 2008.
Strangely enough, I recently got an email that contained a list of MCP exams that were slated for retirement in 2004. Lo and behold, both of the Visual Basic 6 exams are on it. Although it appears that Microsoft will not require candidates to take any additional exams to retain certification, I am disturbed by the timing of this move. I think that it sends the wrong signal to companies and developers who are still deeply invested in VB6.
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Jonathan Goodyear is the president of ASPSoft, Inc. (www.aspsoft.com), an Internet consulting firm based in Orlando, FL. He is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer and is the author of "Debugging ASP.NET" (www.DebuggingASP.NET) (New Riders). He is also a contributing editor for Visual Studio Magazine and asp.netPRO Magazine, and speaks frequently at major technology conferences such as VSLive and ASP.NET Connections. Reach him at jon@aspsoft.com or through his angryCoder eZine at www.angryCoder.com.
icrosoft's policy for supporting versions of their software has historically been current version minus 2. That policy was supposed to be relaxed and extended when Microsoft released the .NET Framework and Visual Studio .NET, because they represented such a radical break from the COM roots of the Visual Studio 6 (more specifically VB6) world. Shortly after the official release of .NET, Ari Bixhorn, the Product Manager for Visual Basic .NET, stated that Microsoft planned to provide high level support for VB6 through 2005, and limited support through 2008.
