[Info-vax] VMS port to x86

[JF Mezei]

Neil Rieck wrote:

> If OpenVMS is not ported to x86-64 then OpenVMS is toast!
> If NonStop is not ported to x86-64 then NonStop is toast!
> If HP-UX is not ported to x86-64 then HP-UX is toast!

Correct. But HP has bet that it can survive by offering migration to
Linux or Windows on its own servers.

With HP now building 8086 based Superdomes which should be shipping
soon, HP should stay to unveil its true colours within the next 12
months. The Oracle documents said that customers would find out about he
EOL of Itanium in 2012 so that the 5 year period would correspond to the
end of support by Intel.


My gut tells me that the decision to gut VMS engineering came when HP
decided to abandon porting efforts. It is a shame because VMS could
probably be ported to X86 much cheaper and faster than HP-UX (endianness
issues for HP-UX).

It isn't clear what value HP-UX on x86 would bring that Linux couldn't
bring.

But VMS and NSK would still bring distinctive features not available on
Linux.


The big question is really NSK. It would not surprise me if this were
the only OS to survive the death of IA64. Those are high value and high
profile servers that, in many cases, control lives.


Another possibility is that HP will have its own distribution of linux
with proprietary HP add-ons. This would compete against the other Linux
distributiosn such as Red Hat etc