[Info-vax] Licenses on VAX/VMS 4.0/4.1 source code listing scans

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 12/10/21 8:29 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 12/10/2021 8:11 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> On 12/10/21 8:05 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
>>> So, in your opinion, should customers continue to stick with VMS?
>>
>> Not my call to make.  I no longer have a dog in the fight.
>> If the p[people using VMS feel comfortable staying there that's fine.
>> Obviously, many already have not.  I think the current owners are a
>> better bet than the last. At least the current owners actually want
>> to see it succeed. But only the current users can make the decision
>> of whether or not to stay.  And assume all the risks that entails.
> 
> The risk seems pretty low to me.

I agree that the risk today, based on the information publicly
available,  seems quite low.

> 
> The x86-64 port is almost complete that means new and cheap
> hardware available for many years to come.

But it is not going to run (or, at least, not be supported) on
that cheap hardware.  I doubt Acer is one of their targets.

> 
> VSI seems to adjust ambition level to what they can pay for.
> Which may be frustrating in the perspective of getting a lot
> of new features very quickly, but is very good from a
> financial risk perspective. Less revenue will not result
> in bankruptcy but just result in slower pace of rollout of
> new features.

But it may result in less customers.  They are already fighting
an uphill battle selling something that the industry tells people
is a dead end.  Kind of like COBOL.  It is probably one of the
most used languages for serious business applications in use
today.  Some of the largest information systems in the world
are written in it.  Everybody is affected by its use every day.
And yet, because academia continues to denigrate it and refuses
to teach it the pool of technicians competent in its use continues
to drop.  Likewise, I doubt there are any CIO's telling their
companies to jump on the VMS bandwagon especially when their
CISO is telling them "VMS bad, Windows good".

> 
> There is practically zero risk that VSI will ditch VMS as
> VMS is their only business.

It has never been a concern that VSI would ditch VMS.  It is the
rest of the IT world ditching VMS that is the threat.  Not only
to VMS, but also to VSI.

> 
> Not bad.
> 
> Of course VSI could further reduce risk for users by
> coming up with a license scheme that ensured that all
> customers would always have N years left on their
> licenses.

And, the only problem with that is what is good, longterm,
for the customer may not be good, longterm, for VSI.  An
interesting paradox.

bill