[Info-vax] "VSI OpenVMS VAX"

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 11/20/2019 6:14 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 11/20/2019 5:51 PM, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
>> Now, it has been said that VSI would never support OpenVMS VAX.
>> But remember that once that was said for OpenVMS Alpha also.
>>
>> But then on a sunny day, VSI loded the kit, changed a few things
>> and presssed the "build" button, and voila, there we had an
>> "VSI OpenVMS Alpha" distribution. All within the HPE agreement,
>> I'm sure.
> 
> You might remember that VSI had pressure from paying customers to do so. 
>   I do hope the work has paid off for them.
> 
>> So, not saying that it *will* happen (and I'm sure VSI will say
>> that it will not happen), but my understanding is that there is
>> nothing in the HPE agreement preventing VSI to load the VAX kit,
>> change the welcome banner, and press "build". And then we'd had
>> a "VSI OpenVMS VAX" kit fully within the HPE agreement.
> 
> That likely is possible.  That also is quite unlikely to happen.
> 
>> It is probably mostly/only a marketing decission. Is there a
>> business case for doing so? I've no idea... :-)
> 
> If enough VAX users offered enough money, that just might be a business 
> case.  Even then VSI might consider it something that hinders their core 
> work and say no.  For hobbyists, not a chance.

VSI is a business so of course it is all about
the money.

And I think that the bottom line is that there
are way more Alpha systems than VAX systems out there.

VAX->Alpha was a lot earlier than Alpha->Itanium and
Alpha was more liked than Itanium.

Result: lots of Alphas still in production and
relative few VAX left in production.

Arne