It's been 20 years

Technology Trends

Our expectations for computing have changed dramatically since the turn of the century:

• Several Major Windows OS changes: XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
• Critical focus on cyber security and privacy
• Profound advances in web application design and browser technology
• Ubiquitous internet: IoT, web-connected applications, web services, mobile and smart devices
• New cloud computing and virtualization platforms: Azure, AWS, Docker
• Improvements in user experience: Voice, Touch, Gestures, Vision
• Changes in deployment: Automatic Windows Update, Roaming Realtime Personalization, Installations from App Stores, SaaS
• Cutting-edge computing: Machine Learning, Hive Computing, Robotics, and Augmented Reality

The Windows platform continues to diverge from its 32-bit roots and, in the process, it becomes less compatible with VB6 and COM. January 2020 will bring the End of Windows 7 Support. We already have people telling us that their VB6/ASP applications no longer work reliably and fail to meet expectations for security and usability. Those problems will increase as more people upgrade to the latest Windows OS and find that their out-dated applications do not even install let alone function correctly.

Meanwhile, Windows development for .NET continues to evolve. The .NET community is growing and creating commercial and Open Source compilers, frameworks, applications, and development tools. .NET development is now possible on multiple platforms: Android, iPhone, Linux and MacOS -- besides Windows.

Finally, we continue to enjoy great advancements in the ways teams build software: improved DevOps and Collaboration, Continuous Integration, automated testing, integrated application monitoring, and sophisticated design patterns. Optimized for.NET, these advances cannot be fully utilized on the VB6/ASP/COM platform.

This is progress, but technology for technology's sake does not pay the bills. Reliable, accurate functionality for your users is what matters most. As long as your functionality remains locked up in out-dated technology, it will be difficult to maintain service levels, let alone deliver the promises of contemporary computing.

The Case of the Disappearing VB6 Programmer

VB6 was designed and optimized for COM and Windows XP. It was very popular in the 1990s, but it started to fall out of favor in 2002 when Microsoft released .NET. The official end-of-support for VB6 was over 10 years ago, in April 2008.

Developers generally prefer to work with well-supported, marketable technologies. Finding people who are both willing and able to work with VB6/ASP is getting harder and it's only a matter of time before VB6/ASP development activities fail due to lack of resources. If you have VB6/ASP experts working for you, it may be a good idea to begin your modernization efforts now, while those folks are available to help. You may also consider using gmStudio to help you "cash-in" your legacy codes and get the job done faster with less cost, risk and disruption.

At its peak, there were over three million developers writing VB6 code. Maybe you were one of them; I was. Today, most working Windows developers never used VB6 and those who did have gone on to learn .NET. VB6 as a mainstream development tool is history, and the same can be said about ASP Classic for web development. As shown in the schematic, the assumed diminishing size of the VB6 community may not be far off from the actual attrition.