qb64 "compiles" to C and then to machine code. There is nothing inherently slow about the dialect itself. Classic qBasic was interpreted however, so that might be what your thinking of. Also lots and lots of internal corporate software is still written in VB. Most commercial software is written in c++ and java because they are well established industry standards and C/java programmers are easily interchangeable in software farms. VB programmers on the other hand are tied to one platform, and their skills are less transferable. Non of that has anything to do with it's execution speed. Especially if you're working in dotNet then dialect is more of an esthetic choice or influenced by available libraries