[Info-vax] Should Oracle buy OpenVMS?

[Bob Koehler]

In article <00358570$0$20466$c3e8da3 at news.astraweb.com>, JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot at vaxination.ca> writes:
> 
> HP has shown every sign of writing off VMS rather than selling it.
> Remember that their expectations have always been to convert sufficient
> number of VMS customers to other HP products instead of growing VMS.

   HP also has a history of writing old products off rather than selling
   them.  Remember 68K based workstations?  Remember MPE?  They didn't
   sell off either one of those, just told thier customers to move to
   the "new" stuff.

   Now if VMS were an entire major product line, like the
   instrumentation they spun off as Aligent, then it might get spun off
   or sold.

   HP's business model does not seem to want VMS in someone else's hands
   as even a small competitor.

   But until recently HP behaved as if they did want VMS as a product,
   even if a small market share.