[Info-vax] x86-64-based Superdomes on the way (says HP)

[Michael Kraemer]

JF Mezei schrieb:
> Phillip Helbig---undress to reply wrote:
> 
> 
>>>There might also be some contractual obligations to release the source
>>>code should HP stop developping VMS so that thsoe major customers would
>>>be able to fix their own bugs etc.
>>
>>I'm not a legal expert, but I am pretty sure that this is not the case.  
>>Has there ever been a similar case where this was the result?
> 
> Having source code held in trust with the customer gaining access to it
> should the vendor cease to exist or cease to develop it is actually
> fairly common.

For minor apps, maybe, but for an entire OS this is wishful
thinking, I guess. I can't imagine a customer diverting
their scarce resources to offtopic projects like OS development.
The best you can hope here is something similar to
eComStation from Serenity Systems, who desperately try
to give OS/2 an afterlife despite IBM having dropped it.

> Pretty sure that the military would have such contracts, especially when
> you consider the number of changes in ownership with VMS and the
> uncertainty about its future since the mid 1990s with many news outlets
> declaring VMS dead.

Haven't we heard here over and over again how negligible VMS usage
within US military is?