[Info-vax] VMS Software Releases Roadmap Updates

[Dave Froble]

On 9/28/2021 4:42 AM, John Dallman wrote:
> In article <sitp1a$1jai$1 at gioia.aioe.org>, arne at vajhoej.dk (Arne Vajhøj)
> wrote:
>> On 9/27/2021 8:24 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>> And what is the likelihood that a potential new customer would buy
>>> an Itanium just to be able to use an x86/64?
>>
>> None.
>>
>> But this is clearly for existing VMS customers.
>
> It's a bit worse than that. Potential new VMS customers may well be
> seriously put off by hearing of the idea that you need an Itanium to do
> development, even if this is a short-lived thing. The view of Itanium in
> the IT industry is most commonly "What's that?", followed by "Wasn't that
> a massive failure 20 years ago?" and "That cost us a fortune, we're not
> going back there!"
>
> The VMS community stands out for its extremely positive attitude to VMS,
> relative to the rest of the world. I'm including the Alpha hold-outs in
> that statement.
>
> John
>

Alpha came into use somewhere around 1990.  At the time, DEC claimed 
that the architecture would be good for 25 years.  Do the math, Alpha 
was intended to be dead 5 or so years ago.

The real problem is, DEC isn't around to give us the follow on to 
replace Alpha.

And so we got piece of shit itanic, and now piece of shit x86.  Ain't 
progress wonderful?

-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc.      E-Mail: davef at tsoft-inc.com
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