by Brandon Stewart - written for https://www.facebook.com/MicrosoftVB !
Judging by the quality (or lack there of) of other open source applications I've dealt with, I shiver at the thought of the world's most popular design system being open sourced... and ruined - with bugs and compatibility issues. Instead, I would like to see Microsoft sell VB6 to another company that will hold true to VB6's current syntax, platform, and legacy, while continuing to update it for the future which would include making it both x64 and cross platform. But we all know that isn't going to happen because rather than letting consumers determine the market and companies producing goods which meet those demands, Microsoft is attempting to force the market in a direction that solely benefits them. In other words, the technologies of tomorrow will be what a small hand full of corporations want them to be in a manner that fits their business models instead of those technologies being shaped by the wants or needs of consumers. And of course, you will be expected to bow and be ever so thankful that these monopolies are willing to offer you inferior sub-quality products in exchange for your hard-earned cash. If VB6 is open sourced, then Microsoft will be competing against one of its own products that it has no hope of beating. So, much like fuel efficient carburators, VB6 will eventually be buried where no one else can get their hands on it
Bill Gates began Microsoft in the early 1970's, originally for hobbyists. It was we hobbyists, hackers, and pirateers who built Microsoft into the powerhouse giant that it was for Gates. But somewhere along the line at the beginning of the new millenium, the d***heads with MBAs and greed in their hearts moved in to take hold of the company, slowly pushing Gates out and Microsoft away from his mission and purpose, doing so while keeping Gates on during the last decade purely for his iconic market value, with a compliant board of directors stripping him of any decision making power regarding either development or the future direction of the company, and making life for him there so unbearable that he finally decided to call it quits altogether at the urging of investors.
When this cout d'etat began in 2000, the huge cluster f*** known as the .NET platform was born along with an ensuing avalanche over the coming decade of inferior bloatware and piss-poor/unstable operating systems. It's no small wonder that Microsoft finally realized its stupidity and based Windows 8/8.1 on the older COM platform instead of the failed .NET platform. But too late! The damage has already been done. Developers and programmers are dumping Microsoft en mass in favor of open source. So too, are businesses dumping the Windows operating system and moving to Linux.
This sans Bill Gates version of Microsoft is a condemned whale, slowly dying on a beach of abandonment, while its Office line of products is the only thing keeping it afloat for the time being. I have several issues of my own with Gates, and I'm definitely not a member of his fan club. However, with that being said, I do still hold a twisted sense of loyalty, both toward him and to the legacy of the old Microsoft that he provided for us hobbyists and hackers. It would not hurt my feelings in the least if we all banded together to cripple the new Microsoft with endless DoS attacks on their servers. But such things are illegal and I would never suggest anyone partake in illegal activities. I do suggest however, that we encourage as many people as possible to abandon Microsoft altogether, to let the wimpering giant die an exasperating death on its own.
Microsoft is a dying entity that likely will not be around many more years. Perhaps it's time we all let go of VB6 and finally jumped shipped from them, and move on to other venues.
