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

[JF Mezei]

Michael Kraemer wrote:

> This may well be, but associated support contracts just preserve the
> past and have little meaning for VMS' future. A support contract
> is not a "development contract".

At this point, with HP basically having confirmed they are throwing in
the towel on BCS hoping only to slow the decline of that unit, my guess
is that HP will expand its VMS poslicy of just trying to cater to the
existing customer base to HP-UX and NSK.

However, when IA64 is discontinued, I think BCS will remain, mostly for
NSK. Even if the functionality of NSK is ported to Linux on 8086, HP wll
still need to build fault tolerant systems to run that version of Linux.


On the other side of the coin, perhaps Whitman sent this trial balloon
out to see if the HP-UX/VMS/NSK customer base will revolt and demand
their OS be ported to 8086 servers or tell HP exactly what features HP
needs to add to Linux to make it possible for customers to migrate from
HP-UX , NSK and VMS to Linux.


In fairness to HP, they have upheld their word to continue to support
existing customers and give them time to migrate to a new platform (as
per Stallard's original May 7th 2002 memo). And they will do this for
Alpha and IA64 customers.

However, those customers who need new features and support for new
interconnects (such a disk arrays, IP stack features etc) will find that
"support only" will not be sufficient and they will need to migrate to
an actively developped platform eventually.

Perhpas it is time for Hoff to port VMS clustering to Linux.