[Info-vax] What is VMS worth?

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <529f2478$0$40067$c3e8da3$26f9d57d at news.astraweb.com>,
	Subcommandante XDelta <vlf at star.enet.dec.com> writes:
> (WAS: Current VMS Usage Survey)
> 
> JF Mezei:
>> On 13-12-03 21:24, Subcommandante XDelta wrote:
>> 
>>> Rather agreeing to sell VMS to a consortium composed of the remaining
>>> 2000 paying customers, to preserve HPs reputation that they give a damn
>>> about their business customers.
>>
>> What is left to sell ?
>> 
>> There is no engineering group. The value of VMS (or any OS) lies in the
>> brains that have enough knowledge/experience to avoid pitfalls such as
>> buffer overruns, create proper documentation etc. It is all gone.
>> 
>> And apart from restructuring teh source code to allow multi platform and
>> ease porting, there hasn't been much development in VMS for about 15 years.
>> 
>> Also, remember that Digital donated much of the IP to Microsoft in
>> exchange for the right to sell Windows.  HP ditched attekps to port the
>> clustering stuff to HP-UX.
>> 
>> At this point in time, I would say that VMS has $0 residual value in
>> terms of the OS itself. (support business might have some),
>> 
>> VMS is an antique OS that has been stagnant for many many years. Along
>> the likes of Tru64, MPE, Data General's AOS/VS etc.
> 
> Bifurcate! - I decided to fork.
> 
> First, a joke from 2008:
> 
> Q: What is the capital of Iceland?
> 
> A: Reykjavik!
> 
> Wrong: It's two Krona.
> 
> What is the VMS human capital at HP? - John Egolf and Keith Parris, IIRC
> - anybody else?
> 
> I do apologise to any of the Indians at VMS HQ, that may be reading
> this, no doubt you are highly educated and highly talented, and you may
> well have learned to love and respect the inherent quality of the VMS
> way, but VMS Engineering you are not; however in a rebooted VMS ECOlogy
> there will be demand for skilled VMS professionals.
> 
> What else?
> 
> A couple of Blu-ray sized backup media should cater for archiving image
> backups of all the VMS build and test systems, and all the source code
> to VMS and the layered products and documentation, both public and VMS
> engineering internal.
> 
> Perhaps a shipping container worth of the paper documentation and
> internal documentation from all the generations of VMS. The odd bit of
> sentimental DEC hardware; and that's about it.
> 
> Possibly, perhaps, just tapping in the dark.
> 
> Of course there may be endless filing cabinets full of NDAs, but they
> can all be rescinded, the paper contracts shredded, piled up, doused in
> petrol and burned, the NDAs are not even worth recycling as toilet paper.
> 
> I had a bad dream a few nights ago, some sunset scenario, there was this
> big funeral pyre of VMS manuals and reams and reams of LP 29 fan-fold
> line-printer print-outs of all the VMS source code. Everthing stank of
> petrol, there were HP and Microsoft suits all around, with champagne
> bottles ready to pop and party streamers ready to pull.
> 
> Meg Whitman walks up the funeral pyre and with a nonchalant and
> dismissive flick of the wrist throws a match onto the pyre and turns it
> into a conflagration of cinders and ashes, no ceremony, no eulogy, no
> witnessing, as soon as the match was cast, she turned away without a
> backward glance and joined the throng of HP and MS suits, cheering in
> celebration at the successful murder and annihilation of an operating
> system culture, without penalty.
> 
> Microsoft finally killing the father through the Hewlett Packard proxy.
> 
> The intellectual heritage of the Digital Equipment Corporation lost to
> humanity forever.
> 
> Extinguished, extirpated, exterminated, erased.
> 
> Luckily that was just a bad dream that I awoke out of, and I am sure I
> am not typing this in a waking dream.
> 
> VMS is priceless, but what is it worth?
> 
> What is a fair price to offer HP for the full source code and
> documentation, including all VMS engineering internal documentation and
> images of the development and test systems?
> 
> Would anyone care to run some numbers?

I must have missed the announcement where they said VMS was for sale.

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>