< snip>
> MS and its partners and customers have invested way, way too much money in this platform to do away with it or let it die anytime soon. .NET is no VFP, which was allowed to wither on the wine because a) MS didn't have a huge investment in it and b) because it was seen as cannibalizing sales from other, more lucrative (for MS) products. When it comes to truly important products, MS will stick with them no matter what. Such as C++, which has been on the catalog for a long time already, and is now .NET based.

M$ and its partners invested a lot into VB Classic and where it's now? I wouldn't be surprised if M$ replace .NET with the "next grate thing" in the near future. As history shows, the interests of users/customers never was a top priority for M$.