[Info-vax] VSI strategy for OpenVMS

[David Goodwin]

On Wednesday, September 15, 2021 at 3:12:37 AM UTC+12, chris wrote:
> On 09/14/21 13:39, Arne Vajhøj wrote: 
> > On 9/14/2021 8:25 AM, chris wrote: 
> 
> >> A lot of excuses why a browser should not be included. It's a 
> >> standard tool that everyone takes for granted these days and is 
> >> universal in terms of cross platform operation and compatibility 
> >> 
> >> just one more thing that would help drag vms into the modern age.. 
> > 
> > Every desktop OS or tablet OS or phone OS comes with a browser. 
> > 
> > But servers today are mostly headless. They reside in 
> > a server room or at a hosting facility or at a cloud provider. 
> > They can be accessed via ssh or browser or some dedicated 
> > fat client GUI. Sure some of them may have a browser installed 
> > and there are some ways to run browser on them and get 
> > the display on a PC, but in those cases there already are 
> > a PC involved that already has a browser. 
> > 
> > Arne
> Sorry, but that requires another machine and makes the assumption 
> that vms will never be asked to access and manage other systems, 
> typically using a browser. If it's going to cut it in the 20B0's, 
> it needs as much capability and range to tools as possible. 
> Being set against provision of a browser is just the sort of 
> dinosaur thinking that has cast vms into a minority interest for 
> decades. It may have been brilliant decades ago, but is totally 
> outclassed these days, and will need real effort to make any 
> headway at all without most of the capability of it's competitors. 
> 
> An inconvenient truth ?, yes, but true none the less... 

You know whats really an inconvenient truth? Its probably impossible
for a proprietary operating system to compete with Linux in the long term
regardless of whether it has a web browser.

Because realistically what can VMS do that isn't cheaper and easier
on Linux besides "run existing VMS applications"? Why pay for VMS to 
run ports of Linux software when you could just run Linux software on 
its native platform for free?

Even Windows Server is struggling here for the same reason. Most stuff
targets Linux now so Microsoft runs more Linux virtual machines in Azure
than Windows and has for some years now. We're at the point where 
Microsoft has added Linux binary compatibility to Windows because 
thats what most development tools are built for now.

It *might* be possible to co-exist long-term with Linux as an open-source
operating system. The *BSDs seem to be doing OK. And Solaris lives on
in the form of Illumos (a fork of OpenSolaris). Maybe this path would 
work for OpenVMS too.