[Southack]

"You could also move to a different product, if you want. The sky is definitely not falling."

I agree.

Corporations that have been burned by MicroSoft's VB.Net trashing of their VB 6 code bases are at least going to consider moving to other products rather than remaining with proprietary MicroSoft "solutions" that may again at some point in the future "lose" backwards compatibility.

No doubt C++ and Java will gain some new adherents from those who leave the VB line.

And MicroSoft is big enough that even VB.Net will probably stumble along without actually falling out of use.

So the sky isn't falling.

[sevry]

are at least going to consider moving to other products

I completely agree. Absolutely. Categorically. That's the actual, the competitive, free market. Some people in this thread seem very slow to catch on. If Microsoft chooses to mess up, other companies should benefit. If they wish to upset their customer base, then their customer might simply go elsewhere. It's not rocket science, as was a subthread here.