Well, a person can think sentimentally about an old romantic partner but still know it would be a bad idea to get back together. I had a great time with VB6, but .NET was responsible for almost all of my professional life in code. Both C# and VB.NET have been very good to me, and I’d take the .NET platform any day over classic VB for a project. But I do have nostalgia for my programming roots — it’s no different than remembering an old house you grew up in.

One more thing about the evolution of .NET. The move to open source and non-Windows platform at Microsoft has been tremendous. However, I do miss the days that SQL Server, ASP.NET, and even WinForms/WPF were industry standards. Now they are at best very big niches. Microsoft managed to stay relevant when many were forecasting its demise, but the feeling that MS is driving the developer world forward has faded.