[Info-vax] Some questions on software for VMS 7.3 VAX

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2016-01-12 15:57:59 +0000, David Froble said:

> Stephen Hoffman wrote:
>> 
>> VAX and OpenVMS in general has not been the industry standards in much 
>> of anything since the 1990s.  Not in anything that folks were willing 
>> to pay for.
>> 
> 
> VAX is dead ..
> Alpha is dead ..
> itanic is dead ..

Probably one more generation for the lattermost Itanium servers per 
reported HPE plans, but yes.

> Perhaps VMS has a chance on x86, we will see ..

VSI probably has some idea, but — for the folks that don't have a 
backdoor view to Clair Grant's office whiteboards and notes — the time 
and effort involved in bringing OpenVMS forward to something that's 
(more) competitive should not and cannot be underestimated.    OpenVMS 
is not competitive with Linux nor Windows.  Not in its present state.

For the next ~five years, VSI is entirely about the installed base.

The downside of any installed base on any platform being that most will 
want things that most potential new customers probably will not.   
These are not easy choices to make, either.   In the face of 
fundamentally broken tools and interfaces, compatibility eventually and 
inevitably kills.  Which means VSI has the choice to ride the OpenVMS 
installed base down for whatever profits can be extracted, or to break 
things and to annoy and to risk alienating the existing folks, and to 
start working to expand the installed base.

But to what end, what features, and for what potential customers, too?  
  Not to draw off even a rounding error from the total number of Linux 
or Windows Server users, certainly.

> Hobbyist and retro-computing can still use the above HW.

Ayup; but please do remember to check any modern mental baggage — the 
sorts of standards and features that folks accustomed to Windows, 
Linux, BSD or OS X might expect to have available in a computer — at 
the door.


-- 
Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC