[Info-vax] Thanks but no thanks!

[Mark Daniel]

BillPedersen wrote:
> On Aug 1, 5:36 am, "Richard Maher"<maher... at hotspamnotmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> I wouldn't want HP/VMS to have the excuse to delay Axis2/C any longer due to
>> some half-arsed amateur hour effort.
>>
>> Personally, I'd much prefer the Axis2/C port to live with the Axis2/JAVA
>> team. (If such a team exists obviously)
>>
>
> This waiting on HP or Compaq or DEC to have done something timely and
> intelligent with an open source product is what I see as a major issue
> in the OpenVMS Community.  It goes contrary to the ideas and
> techniques of the Open Source Community. Waiting for the vendor to do
> something with a given open source product and then expecting that
> vendor to maintain it and keep it current is contrary to the methods
> and philosophy of open source.
>
> I can think of no open source product/application taken on by OpenVMS
> which has kept current and been successful.
>
> I do not place John Apps' and Brett Cameron's efforts in the above
> statement.  The efforts they have made are directed exactly at the
> right style and technique.
>
> The OpenVMS Community needs to open themselves to the involvement and
> style of Open Source.  They need to move forward themselves rather
> than waiting for OpenVMS Engineering or OpenVMS Marketing or someone
> else at HP with some relationship to OpenVMS doing it for them.  The
> applications and products will continue to be stale and the
> engineering resources we need to have concentrated on OpenVMS will
> continue to be diluted.
>
> OpenVMS Engineering needs to come around to this as well.  They can
> not be the gatekeepers for all on OpenVMS.  They need to figure out
> how to work with the Community on the open source front.  They have
> not embraced this in the past and this has only delayed the efforts of
> both open source but other features people are looking for in
> OpenVMS.  How long have people been begging for IPsec in TCP/IP or
> instance?
>
> Wait if you want but the OpenVMS User Community needs to come together
> if they want to see these things happen.
>
> Bill.

Agree with all these sentiments, Bill.

For open source, the major hurdle for VMS is its minute market share and 
correspondingly proportioned user community.  There's little or no 
critical mass to make open source work well - shared effort - unless you 
can find a champion with a significantly large hole in the head.