Sorry my friend... But if I have to think that I shouldn't use something because it could be discontinued then I'll have to throw away my car, my laptop, my celphone, because all of them will be gone at some point. Anyway Microsoft will never drop VB because it's the languaje that they really created. All others are copies from Perl and Java. Most programers prefer using C# because it's different from Microsoft and it's possible to use it in UNIX enviroments. I know very well VB, C#, JAVA and some other languajes and that let me choice which is the best for each project. A newbie should start with VB because it's easier to learn adn understand. Then start learning C# and from there any other languaje will be a piece of cake. Remember that what matters for a good programer is the logics, not the languaje.