[Info-vax] OT: Elephants Can't Dance

[Michael Kraemer]

Neil Rieck schrieb:
> 
> 1) Most people in this news group would agree with me that OpenVMS is
> the superior OS. 

Define "superior".

> However, like OS/2, its various owners have been
> doing a poor job of marketing it.

That's not entirely true.
At least in my part of the world OS/2 had
a very good marketing. The product was good, IBM had smart ads,
the largest retailers preloaded it on their PCs, etc.
Nevertheless it lost the race against Windoze.
Probable reasons: the majority of trade press and users
were already preoccupied with Windoze.
And there were also technical reasons:
OS/2 required more resources than Windoze 3.x
(a potential showstopper back in those times when RAM was expensive)
and apps for end customers were scarce.
Lesson to be learned: You can't market against the trend,
no matter how much effort and money you pour into it.
Especially if the claimed superiority of your product
is not so compelling for the majority of potential buyers.

> 2) If OpenVMS survived two acquisitions (DEC to Compaq to HP) and it
> is still alive, then it must be a really good product. 

One could claim the same for AmigaOS.

> 
> 1) Intel (they still use VMS in their fabs)

Pure speculation unless somebody gives more
than anecdotal evidence how many fabs still
depend essentially on VMS.