Thoughtful Critique of VB.NET

I came upon this insightful article by Richard Grimes on the origins and value of VB.NET, when reading blogs about the controversy over MS support for VB6. (His site at www.richardgrimes.com has several educational articles on issues of .NET security and deployment.)

Some Microsofties wrote rebuttals to Grimes. Dan Fernandez has a detailed response on his Blog. He focuses on issues Grimes raises about the .NET platform and the CLR. I was not entirely convinced by his refutation in one area where Grimes raised questions - the degree to which .NET is or will be integrated into the Windows platform.
Regarding VB.NET, Duncan MacKenzie has a short post on his blog, and links to
Scott Swigart who has a long post that has many comments, including one from Grimes. Some are juvenile, but many are worth reading.