Inclusion in the framework meant these languages acquired 
the host of features delivered by the .NET Framework, the 
ability to create Web apps more easily being the most 
important. Without this feature, I think VB.NET would be 
shunned by many corporate customers in favor of others 
languages that do have it (read: Java). Had Microsoft 
instead created a version 7 of VB that built on VB5 and 
VB6, I think VB would be akin to Visual FoxPro, beloved 
by those who use it, but marginalized from mainstream 
development.