[Info-vax] VSI has released 9.2-1

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 6/16/2023 8:21 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2023-06-15, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>> 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.

How many more VMS licenses will VSI sell because of that feature?

My guess: zero.

The OpenSSL maintainers may be happy that they get better entropy
with less code.

The security interested people may think it is nice to get
better entropy.

But when it comes to sales I see zero extra sale.

Sale will be driven by other things:
* getting the last traditional compilers available (Cobol and Basic)
* getting Java and Python available
* making sure Oracle get Rdb available
* convince Synergex to get DBL available
* getting all other platform-software currently available
   on Alpha and/or Itanium available
* get some new stuff not currently available
   on Alpha and/or Itanium (like RabbitMQ, RocksDB etc.)
   available
* getting the OS build with native optimizing
   compilers
* enhance RTL to support some of all the "newer" stuff
   (like HTTP, JSON etc.)
* get a modern Fortran compiler available
* etc.

Arne