[Info-vax] Whither VMS?

[Neil Rieck]

On Sep 3, 8:41 am, "Richard Maher" <maher... at hotspamnotmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi Curtis,
>
> "Curtis Rempel" <cur... at no.spam.here.telus.net> wrote in message
>
> news:IQlnm.42197$Db2.13820 at edtnps83...> Looks like another VMS casualty:
>
> http://blogs.computerworld.com/14637/linux_powers_worlds_fastest_stoc...
>
> So VMS license payers funding the port of RTR to Linux wasn't enough to
> bring a tear to your eye at the last RoadMap?
>
> Regards Richard Maher
>
> PS. The good news is that all this MQSeries, BMQ, RTR store-and-forward crap
> is yesterday's technology, a trading system with instantaneous matching,
> clearing, and settlement can't be far away?

You bring up an interesting point that has been in the back of my head
for months now. HP seems to push Windows, Linux and HPUX more than
anything else. Forgetting about Windows and Linux for a moment, what
does HP charge for OS and compiler licenses in the HPUX world?

If HPUX licenses are lower than OpenVMS then wouldn't this be a form
of unnatural selection against OpenVMS? (because bean counters will
always point you to the cheaper product; that's why our IS/IT people
keep leaning on us to switch to Windows Server 2003). The only way to
get OpenVMS licensing on a level playing field with HPUX (or anything
else) is to announce to the world that OpenVMS prices will drop a
certain percent every week for the next 60 months. The only down side
to this is guaranteeing that there will still be an OpenVMS market in
60 months.

And while on my soap box, I know that anyone can scrape together money
each year for a Connect membership then pay/apply for OpenVMS hobbyist
licenses which will expire after every year. (I'm not sure how you get
a hobbyist license for HPUX). Anyway, at the end of the day this is
still a bigger pain than just freely downloading Ubuntu, Linux,
Solaris or SUN Studio. Maybe HP should just go the extra mile and
allow people to freely download OpenVMS for non-commercial use. Why?
How will the newbies ever get involved with OpenVMS if they don't get
a free shot at trying it out? This is just food-for-thought.

Neil Rieck
Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge,
Ontario, Canada.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/