No more support for Visual Studio

[Guv]

MicroSoft recently announced that it was dropping support for various products: Windows 9x & ME, Visual Studio 6, Office 97, and I do not remember what else.

I wonder if dropping Visual Stuid means dropping support for VB 6.

Any thonghts?

[Kasracer]

Originally posted by Guv
I wonder if dropping Visual Stuid means dropping support for VB 6.

VS 6 has VB6.... so... um... yes?

[wossname]

I think that would be a stupid idea, bearing in mind the millions of VB6 users around the world.

Its still a perfectly viable programming language and has at least another 4-5 years in it in my opinion.

[si_the_geek]

It's been a long time since it was announced, but I believe that it is still supported (in some form) until about 2008.

[Cander]

What support do you need?

Dropped support doesnt mean you have to stop using it.

[plenderj]

I've never asked Microsoft for support on any VB6 apps I've written so I don't see the big deal...

[Guv]

Cander: Getting help is not a problem. I seldom need help, and have always been able to get problems resolved via the on-line help and/or by posting a question here or at a similar site.

If MS drops support, there is no guarantee that Visual Studio will run without problems on the next version of the OS. There is no guarantee that programs written using VB6 will run on the next OS.

BTW: Another potentially sad situation is the possibility of almost all the better software having some protection scheme making it difficult or impossible to install on a second system. One of the reasons I did not go from Windows 98SE to XP is the ract that I have two systems. I hate to buy two licenses.

Note that TurboTax had a copy protection scheme last year. So many customers got mad that they did not do it again this year, but their action suggests that copy protection might be the wave of the future.

There is also talk about providing software on a monthly rental basis instead of an outright purchase, which would make me very unhappy, but might be preferred by corporate users.

[techgnome]

Did you bother to find out WHY they were dropping support for those products?
The reason for it is part of their efforts to head off problem due to the Sun JVM lawsuit. The products they are dropping support for contain some part of the JVM that violates the patent in one form or another. By dropping those products, they are getting them out of their system in the event they lose.
Read the eWeek article .....

TG

[MasterBlaster]

I was under the impression that dropping support meant M$ wasn't going to worry about making these products run on future operating systems. I thought that wasn't happening until 2008or9. If all they are dropping is tech support then no big deal. Unless you speak Indian or vietnamese and feel like taking advice from someone who can't even spell VB, M$ support is useless.

[MasterBlaster]

Originally posted by techgnome
Did you bother to find out WHY they were dropping support for those products?
The reason for it is part of their efforts to head off problem due to the Sun JVM lawsuit. The products they are dropping support for contain some part of the JVM that violates the patent in one form or another. By dropping those products, they are getting them out of their system in the event they lose.
Read the eWeek article .....

TG

heheh

from the moron who wrote that articleTake, for example, Office 2003. Unless you use its groupware and presence functionality, it's really little more than a cosmetic improvement over Office XP. To use those new tools, though, you need to upgrade your server to W2K or Server 2003 so you can run Exchange 2003, SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Live Communications Server 2003. Oh, and if you haven't moved from domains to Active Directory, you'll need to do that, too.

If any one who is actually using W2K or Server 2003, Exchange 2003, SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Live Communications Server 2003 can honestly say that there is nothing more than a cosmetic improvement needs to quit their IT job and go back to flipping burgers. That's like saying a ferrari is only a cosmetic improvement to a VW bug.

[Guv]

In the article I read there was mention of the Sun JVM lawsuit. It also suggested (calimed?) that MicroSoft was using the lawsuit as an excuse to stop supporting software that would not be affected by the lawsuit.

For example, I doubt that Windows 9x is affected by the lawsuit.

[nemaroller]

Last I checked VB6 programs ran on Windows XP and 2000. So it won't change anything for you.

In fact, its quite possible that even Longhorn will still carry the VB6 runtime files.

[Memnoch1207]

Actually, MS site says it won't be dropping support for VS 6 until 2008.