"Unlike Microsoft who required some hefty developer fees."<p>You only had to pay for the developer tools you decided to use, and I don't recall VB[3|5|5] being all that expensive.  But it's been awhile since I even considered it.  Assorted Borland products may have been less expensive.<p>Nowadays there are free .Net development tools.  But I recall Microsoft as  standing out in the help the give people wanting t build for their platform, back when I would  still code VB for money.