[Info-vax] VMS survivability (was: Re: Rendez-vous autour de VMS" of January 31 2023 report)

[Dan Cross]

In article <tstaid$dhc4$2 at dont-email.me>,
Arne Vajhøj  <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>On 2/18/2023 9:49 PM, Dan Cross wrote:
>> In article <tsrr9q$5qhq$4 at dont-email.me>,
>> Arne Vajhøj  <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>>> On 2/18/2023 4:47 PM, Dan Cross wrote:
>>>> In article <tsrfpl$4bfn$2 at dont-email.me>,
>>>> Arne Vajhøj  <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>>>>> On 2/18/2023 4:01 PM, Dan Cross wrote:
>>>>>> In article <tsrdl6$4bfn$1 at dont-email.me>,
>>>>>> Arne Vajhøj  <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>>>>> But there are a few things to remember before
>>>>> considering VSI going that path.
>>>>>
>>>>> 1) Redhat is doing fine delivering support service. But
>>>>>      they may have done even better if they could also have
>>>>>      charged real license fees, but they cannot because
>>>>>      they mostly did not create the products and the products
>>>>>      are typical under GPL or LGPL. VSI can and do sell
>>>>>      licenses.
>>>>
>>>> RedHat got started when the commercial Unix vendors, who did
>>>> charge for software, were still in their prime.  Which among
>>>> them are still selling licenses?
>>>
>>> Most of them are still selling. Oracle is selling Solaris.
>>> IBM is selling AIX. HPE is selling HP-UX. HPE is not selling
>>> Tru64.
>> 
>> Literally every single one of those has been EOL'ed.
>> Every. Single. One.
>
>You can state that and sound totally convincing.
>
>The problem is that everybody that know how to use
>basic search on the internet can detect that it is
>a lie.

I think the problem here is that you lack the sophistication to
understand that small security releases (likely as part of
ongoing contractual obligations) do not mean that something
isn't EOL'ed.

>AIX:
>
>AIX 7.3. TL1 was released in December 2022.
>
>https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/aix-support-lifecycle-information 
>states that IBM supports AIX 7.3 TL1 until end of 2025.

Such long lead times!  A little under three years!  What a smart
time to invest in AIX.

>HP-UX:
>
>There was an update to HP-UX 11iv3 in May 2022.
>
>https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/4AA4-7673ENW states that HPE supports 
>HP-UX 11iv3 (on Integrity) until at least end of 2025.

WOW, so alive....

>Solaris:
>
>Solaris 11.4 SRU53 was release in January 2023.
>
>https://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/lifetime-support-hardware-301321.pdf 
>says that Oracle will support Solaris 11.4 until
>November 2021 / November 2034.

You'll noticed that Solaris 12 has disappeared form Oracle's
roadmap.

>Do they have a future? No or probably not.
>
>(HP-UX will die with Itanium, Oracle has clearly indicated that they
>are putting much effort into Solaris, IBM did not invest in Redhat
>to push AIX)
>
>But they are not EOL today. And will not be for several years.

I can still buy licenses for VMS for VAX from HPE; does that
mean that OpenVMS/VAX hasn't been EOL'ed?

>>> But that does not change that Redhat did not chose
>>> to open source RHEL, JBoss etc. - it was already open
>>> source and they did not have any way to close source it.
>> 
>> No, but no one could manage to do what RedHat did with a
>> commercial Unix version.
>
>In their days the commercial unixes did pretty well.

Times change.

	- Dan C.