Is VB.NET Dead?

Year 2012 has been a busy year for Microsoft developers. Too much to digest and too much to learn. Windows 8 will be available to public on this coming week. Microsoft just published a special MSDN Magazine issue focusing on just Windows 8 and Windows Store apps.

So what is different in this issue?

I remember a few years back, C# developers used to complain how MSDN magazine and early code samples used to be in VB.NET. The trend changed slowly and today, when I am reading this MSDN magazine, I do not see any sample in VB.NET.

All Oct month MSDN Magazine code samples are in C#.

What does that mean?

Is Microsoft is moving away from VB.NET? I can argue that why does it matter? Does it matter if it is C# or VB.NET? Not really. Not really for experienced developers but for students and beginners who can't learn two different languages, it does matter. I wrote a blog, C# vs. VB.NET in 2006 that shows C# developers always get paid more than VB.NET but Bashar Lulu also had his point of view that VB.NET was more popular than C#.

Here is an interesting article that shows C, Java, Objective-C, and C++ are most used programming language followed by C# at #5. 

  • C : 19.822%
  • Java : 17.193%
  • Objective-C : 9.477%
  • C++ : 9.260%
  • C# : 6,530%
Based on these numbers, C# still has a long way to go and I suspect if it will ever become as popular as C, C++ and Java but surely, it is way ahead of VB.NET and some others. 

C# Programmers make more than VB.NET Programmers.

I am not sure how correct this is but here is another good and detailed list of programming languages and their market share. http://langpop.com/

Today, I searched Monster for keywords C# and VB.NET. For C#, there were about 700 jobs but for VB.NET, less than 70. I know it is not an accurate measurement but it gives you an idea about the job market demand of C# vs VB.NET. 


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