[Info-vax] Open source usage, Was Python and various libraries updated

[gérard Calliet]

Le 13/08/2020 à 13:16, John Dallman a écrit :
> In article <hpkfofFab0vU1 at mid.individual.net>,
> gerard.calliet at pia-sofer.fr (gérard Calliet) wrote:
> 
>> VSI doesn't help encouraging collaboration on Open Source, and
>> thinks there is not sufficient strength outside that can be usefull,
> 
> The most important thing, by far, in getting open source work to happen
> on VMS is getting the x86-64 port out and working. With that, people can
> run VMS on commonplace hardware.
> 
> Emulation is slow and unsatisfying to someone who is new to VMS. Alpha
> machines are rare and old, and Itanium became a bad joke outside the VMS
> community.
> 
> John
> 
I understand that, but my opinion is that it is The Big mistake now.

VMS was back with VSI in 2014. VMS on x86, production release is for 
2022, and you have a minimum 6 months effort to port to x86.

More then 8 years is about a century in our business. And the 
underground message if you speak of x86 as the panacea is "the boat is 
sinking, be patient, another boat will be here tomorow".

x86 is not The solution, it is part of the solution, and it is VMS 
itself we have to "sell" as the solution. The Big message in 2014 has 
been "you were with VMS last century, we are with you this century, and 
you will be with VMS next century". But we forgot this century, and it's 
very difficult not to sink, waiting for the next century.

Another mistake is to spoil the HW and emulator based supports of VMS 
now. For sure x86 will be a lot better, and without it no future, but 
now (between 2014 and 2022) we can do a lot of things with what we have.

A lot of customers on VMS have investment plans between 3 to 5 years 
minimum, decided 1 or 2 years before.

THEY HAVE to buy now the last itanium, which are good machines, with an 
up-to-date OS on it.

THEY CAN project some of their apps in Cloud via emulation, and it is 
the only way for them to join the past to the future.

They have not any interest on the real date 2022? 2023? they will get x86.

ANYTHING than can ease them for the 2 next years in the priority of the 
priority.



Open Source is not at the center of that, of course. But all the work we 
have to be able to say to our customers that VMS specialists are not all 
at 1 year of retirement can be eased by gaining interest from Open 
Sources geeks on VMS.


n.b.: The itanic joke is just the meeting of the conservatism of the 
old, the narrow-minded reasoning of the big investors for the compilers, 
and the anti-trust and therefore anti-intel ideology of the younger 
generations. Result: the microprocessor is back to the stone age (x86 is 
VAX but not as good, and with a turbo).