Time to retire VB.NET

Whenever I attend a MS-centric conference, you’ll most likely see that C# is the dominant language. Not by a little bit either, a lot. But VB.NET still has heavy usage in .NET, so why do conferences skew towards C#?

I’m starting to think a lot of it has to do with resources. Why, as a modern .NET developer, should I invest time in learning two statically-typed languages in .NET? If I want to devote time to understanding another .NET language, I’ll pick F#, IronRuby or another more diverse language.

At the MVP summit, I was struck on how much time, effort and energy went in to support, maintain and grow VB.NET. It all seemed like a huge waste of time, given that we already have a static language in .NET, tailor-made for .NET from the ground up.

I bet you could take the existing VB.NET team, rededicate them to building a seamless VB.NET –> C# conversion utility (yes I know they already exist), and just EOL VB.NET.

Because .NET does not need two statically typed languages. It’s just a waste of resources.