Thoughts on VB.NET Migration/Adoption
A while back, an MS Product Manager asked me for my thoughts on the current state of VB.NET migrations and adoption. I thought I would share my thoughts here and see if others think my thoughts are brilliantly insightfull, stupid, or just plain useless...Please let me know what you think !
First – my thoughts on VB adoption. I think that the late (or not-early) adopters are finally getting the message that they had better start making the move, or at least start investigating and giving it some serious thought. When I say "make the move" I don't mean that they need/should migrate all of their existing application. I mean that their development strategy needs to start moving to .NET, and their developers need to start gaining .NET knowledge and experience. It does mean that they should be spending time analyzing their existing apps and deciding what (and how) should be migrated to .NET, what should just be extended by .NET, and what should just be left alone (and/or extended in VB6).
I am also starting to see more ISVs showing more interest in .NET. I always knew this would be a longer/harder sell, since their development cycle is typically much longer than an in-house application, and I think that they are more reluctant to have a "mixed" product, due to the support headaches it could cause. They too are starting to realize that they need to start moving to .NET – although some of them are asking whether they should just wait a little longer until Longhorn. I just tell them that Longhorn won't be a "little" wait … J