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VB.NET is open source, supports AOT, and there is little else that VB 6 does better, other than COM integration, which .NET was always a bit lower level

https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn

Now I bet what you mean is the graphical part, and yes that is only partial open source.

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VB6 apps were compiled and did not need a special runtime. If Microsoft had never made .NET we would be in a different world where VB evolved to be a modern day Rust-like RAD language.

Yes they did, every programming language needs a runtime, unless we're taking about Assembly. C also has a tiny one, even though most folks don't think so.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/visualst...

One of the .NET design ideas was exactly to have a common runtime between VB6+, J++ and C++, using COM, but the lawsuit from Sun made them pivot to something else.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190111203733/https://blogs.msd...

This idea came back as WinRT, which they completly messed up, and for me it was how .NET 1.0 should have been in first place.

https://arstechnica.com/features/2012/10/windows-8-and-winrt...

Unfortunely that ship has sailed, given how bad UWP landed.

The twinBASIC programming language is a modern VB6 - and it can import VB6 source code and forms.

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