[Info-vax] Should Oracle buy OpenVMS?

[Arne Vajhøj]

John Smith (not the one @ HP) wrote:
> "Neil Rieck" <n.rieck at sympatico.ca> wrote in message 
> news:9a6a39a2-4583-4156-863a-00aa25f866c4 at 3g2000yqk.googlegroups.com...
>> After Oracle's purchase of Sun, it seems apparant that Oracle is
>> serious about getting into the enterprise business. (added bonus: many
>> academic institutions only use Sun; carefully watch the next video
>> tour of JPL)
>>
>> Oracle bought RDB from DEC in the 1990s but if OpenVMS is de-
>> emhpasized by HP then RDB is toast. Maybe HP would let OpenVMS go for
>> something lower than the often estimated value of $4 billion -IF-
>> Oracle agreed to buy Itanium hardware from HP for the next 3-5 years.
>> (hey, who thought Hpq could have been enticed to kill off Alpha?)
>>
>> Now if I haven't convinced you so far then here is a quote from
>> Oracle's own web site "Oracle Is the # 1 Business Software Company"
>> http://www.oracle.com/features/hp/business-software-company.html
>> Since OpenVMS has always been considered a business OS then having
>> Oracle acquire the OpenVMS division of HP makes total sense.
> 
> Some relevant questions to ask are:

Some non quantitative answers.

> 1) Just how many 'new to VMS' customers have begun to install and run VMS in 
> the past 2-3 years?

Very few.

> 2) How does that number compare to the attrition rate of VMS customers?

Much smaller.

> 3) How many licenses and the value of those license of the 'new' customers 
> compare to the number and value of the licenses 'lost' by attrition?

Ditto.

> 4) What do VMS maintenance revenues look like - what's the trend?

Probably not bad. Down.

> 5) How hard ($$$$ and time) would it be to port VMS to a different 
> architecture?

Probably not bad assuming there was a will to do it.

Arne