>From a business perspective this makes sense. C++ is a slowly fading language. Most universities/colleges are abandoning it and those that still cling to it ar

>From a business perspective this makes sense. C++ is a slowly fading language. Most universities/colleges are abandoning it and those that still cling to it are in an anti-MS mindset. Don't know where you got that impression. No one in the industry that always used C++ abandons it. That is, any kind of shrink-wrapped software, from Office and Photoshop, to Final Cut Studio, to databases, to games etc. Even the biggest of the web shops rely on it, namely Google and Facebook. If anything there has been a tremendous comeback of C++ in the last year, especially with the new standard. But what you got more wrong is the assumption that MS somehow abandons C++ with this move? Actually MS heavily touts C++/0x for Metro and general windows development. They even had a huge conference touting the return to emphasis to C++ a couple of months ago, titled "back to native".