[Info-vax] September 6, 2016 - new Roadmap and State of the Port updates now on VSI website

[Chris]

On 09/11/16 00:36, David Froble wrote:

>
> If people want to port *ix software, fine, no problem. But, when I get a
> bit testy is when they start to blame any issues on VMS, and not on the
> original product that would appear to have been written without any
> concern for portability.

Systems don't exist in isolation, but depend on all the surrounding 
infrastructure. The main driver of software progress has been the
open source movement, which has transformed functionality, choice and
convenience in the last few decades. This accelerates as more & more
mainstream vendors sink serious money into projects. In the end, the
OS is there to run apps and if the app won't run, people will choose
the shortest path to a solution elsewhere. It's a bit lame to suggest
that customers should buy an OS for it's intrinsic qualities, when
half the worlds useful apps won't run on it.

It's now at the stage where the industry and users take it for granted
that open source packages will be available for the os they are using.
If VMS is to survive, it must have standard package management tools
and online repositories available. If this means modifying parts of the
OS to provide a unix compatability layer (with pipes :-), whatever,
then it must happen...

Regards,

Chris