[Info-vax] The real problem that needs solving to grow VMS

[John Dallman]

In article <tnjk1t$3jkpo$1 at dont-email.me>, davef at tsoft-inc.com (Dave
Froble) wrote:
> On 12/16/2022 9:26 PM, Dan Cross wrote:
> > Yeah, because the planet not existing in 5 years is absolutely
> > in the same risk category as VSI being defunct in 5 years.
> Well, yeah, if the planet is gone, then most likely VSI will also 
> be gone ..

Oh, come on, Dave. There is a significant risk that VSI will not be in
business in five years, if they cannot get enough paying customers for
VMS. It's hard to quantify, but I'd guess it as being in the 10-20%
region. There's a chance of them still being in business, but on a
reduced scale, only doing maintenance and consulting. There is also a
chance that they will be doing really well, with strong growth, but
that's even harder to estimate. 

The risk that VSI will go out of business, coupled with the time-limited
licenses, makes it hard for potential new customers to decide to invest a
lot of time and money in a business-critical VMS setup. It also
encourages existing customers to consider a transition to Windows or
Linux. 

The odds of Linux ceasing to be available in five years are very small.
An individual Linux distributor may go out of business, but switching to
a different distribution is not hard. 

John