[Info-vax] What Will Drive More OpenVMS Adoption?

[Mike K.]

Honestly, I think that any new users will probably be coming out of the hobbyist/community license program. Basically people who try it out and use it for personal projects, and decide that they like it so much compared to Linux or Windows that when the time comes, they push to use VMS as a server platform for a work project. For this to happen, though, VMS needs to actually have all the pieces in place to serve a modern web app. This means not just a web server, but things like PHP, Python, node.js, etc. And a DBMS that folks can actually use. While Oracle may be planning to port Rdb to x86 eventually, it's not there yet, and even when it comes, will not have any hobbyist option available to allow new users to get to know it. This needs to be fixed, either by beating Oracle with a clue stick until something happens (unlikely) or by updating the woefully outdated version of MariaDB currently available for VMS. 

Documentation specifically aimed at new users who are primarily familiar with Linux of Window would be a help, as would a more reasonable set of default system parameter values that don't require an AUTOGEN cycle every time a significant software package is installed.

Mike

On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 2:49:49 PM UTC-5, kfar... at gmail.com wrote:
> Developers and community members are debating what’s needed to keep interest growing in OpenVMS. On the VMS newsgroup, a discussion is underway, more than a month of it, surrounding openings for the OS. Answers to the question about momentum cover well-traveled ground. Some of the solutions stand out as repeats of the HP 3000’s struggles. 
> 
> Read more... 
> https://legacyos.org/what-will-drive-more-openvms-adoption/