Why is Visual C++ 6.0 no longer available on MSDN?

Question

I was trying to do some legacy work, and looked up Visual C++ 6 on MSDN. I can no longer see it, and the best I can do is Visual C++ 4.2!

Does anyone know why this is the case? Is there a way to get it still from MSDN?

Answer 1

That was the result of a lawsuit, started by Sun Microsystems, the owners of Java. Microsoft obtained a license to implement Java on Windows and implemented their own JVM. Giving it capabilities beyond the JVM implementation that Sun maintained. Sun was not happy about it and sued. It was settled out of court, Microsoft agreed to discontinue their JVM and all of the products that used it. Like VC++ 5.0 and 6.0, Windows 98 and ME, Office 2000 and XP, IE 5.5. Only VB6 survived since its IDE didn't use the JVM.

You can still obtain a license at an auction site like Ebay. Caveat emptor, prices are high.