[Info-vax] VSI has released 9.2-1

[Simon Clubley]

On 2023-06-15, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
> On 6/15/2023 6:26 PM, John Dallman wrote:
>> * AMD CPUs compatibility
>> * Initial support for KVM SCSI VirtIO
>> * Built-in SSL3
>> * Numerous fixes and improvements to the debugger and dump analyzer
>> * Many native compilers, such as C, C++, Fortran, and Macro, are now
>>    available for field test. A new set that includes Bliss, COBOL, and
>>    BASIC is expected to become available soon
>> * Support for newer VMWare hypervisors versions
>> * Additional entropy collection mechanism
>> 
>> https://vmssoftware.com/about/news/2023-06-15-openvms-v9-2-1-release/
>
> Lots of useful stuff (I don't get the entropy thing - sure it is
> important, but there are many other things more important IMHO).
>

The entropy stuff is a critical part of getting "the world's most
secure operating system" actually back up the standards of modern
operating systems. Before this, random number generation on VMS
was hopeless from a security point of view.

It's also vital that it's in x86-64 VMS _before_ the first commercial
releases so that software that should be using it can rely on it actually
being present so it does get used in code.

The amount of effort that VSI are spending on this, at this point in time,
is well justified.

> I got a notification email with what I think is an important paragraph:
>

[snip]

The bit that caught my attention was the following:

|Note: With this release, VMS Software announces an end to standard support
|for V9.2. We encourage everyone who runs V9.2 or earlier x86 builds on
|their systems to migrate to V9.2-1 immediately. Only customers with an
|extended engineering support contract with VMS Software Inc. will receive
|support on OpenVMS V9.2. Patches will no longer be developed for V9.2. Bug
|reports will not be investigated until reporters can reproduce the issue on
|V9.2-1.

I hope that isn't going to be the policy when production releases are
produced. There needs to be a support overlap between the prior releases
and the current release for all customers, even when the current release
is a point release.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.