Scoble points to the kerfuffle over the impending end of support for VB 6. MS is in a difficult place on this, simply due to the popularity of VB 6 (and its predecessors). However, it's not as if they've been quiet about their direction - they announced that VB.NET was the future a long, long time ago - if VB customers had objections (witness the petition movement), then they should have spoken up a long time ago.

I understand the issue - I'm sure that VW customers will have the same issues when Pollock goes live. That's why we've been publicizing the move so much - customers need to know what you are doing, when it's going to happen, and why it's happening. I think MS has done a good job of explaining all of those things with respect to VB (and I hope we are seen as doing the same with respect to Pollock).

Ultimately, no product can stand still - and no product can go forward without the support of its users. At the same time, those users have to understand when standing in front of the bus is likely to help, and when it's likely to result in tread marks...

Update: If you are an angry VB developer - and you want to develop on something that's at the same abstraction level as VB, you might have a look at Smalltalk. ObjectStudio in particular, since it does such a nice job of database linking.