Yes definitely an overstatement. But what I mean is that VB.NET is now at the bottom of the list when it comes to developer excitement. You are unlikely to hear someone talking excitedly about a new language feature in VB.NET, promoting it at a technical session, using it when writing an example of some hot new technology like ML.NET, and so on. If you attend an MS devtour, it’s as if VB.NET doesn’t exist. If you visit some of their Build sites, you’ll get an option for code in either language — C# or F#!

I think TIOBE is way overstated for VB, but it has some truth to it. I suspect many developers are googling “VB.NET” because they’re trying to figure out how to deal with some legacy code. And because VB.NET code is still just as practical and reliable as C#, I’m sure it will remain where it is today, powering many existing applications that periodically need revision and extension. So the death of VB.NET isn’t on the horizon, but I would argue that the death of developer excitement in VB.NET has already happened.

That said, there’s also a bit of a stigma re-emerging with VB.NET, where I think developers will keep quietly using it but — sadly — won’t be eager to talk about it any longer.