[Info-vax] New CEO of VMS Software

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

On Thu, 4 Jan 2024 20:26:33 -0500, Arne Vajhøj wrote:

> On 1/4/2024 5:20 PM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>> On Thu, 4 Jan 2024 15:42:57 -0500, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>> On 1/4/2024 2:25 PM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>>>>
>>>> ... put in place the program I suggested sometime back: get rid of
>>>> most of VMS itself, leaving only the parts that users care
>>>> about--namely their userland programs and DCL command procedures. All
>>>> that could run on an emulation layer on Linux.
>>>
>>> Lots of work to implement.
>> 
>> Much less than the 7 years it took to reimplement VMS on top of AMD64.
> 
> I doubt that.
> 
> Mapping from one OS to another OS is not easy.

Linux is a more versatile kernel than VMS. For example, the WINE project 
has been able to substantially implement the Windows APIs on top of Linux, 
while Microsoft’s attempt to do the reverse, implement the Linux APIs on 
top of the Windows kernel with WSL1, has been abandoned as a failure.

>> Remember, it took less time (and resources) than that to move Linux
>> from 32-bit x86 to 64-bit Alpha.
> 
> Very different task.

How different? It’s exactly the same sort of thing: port an OS to a new 
architecture.

>> Just think: there would have been more customers left if they’d got it
>> working sooner.
> 
> Sector 7 has been around for many years. So the lack of interest in
> their product is not likely to be due to timing.

I mean, customers left who are still interested in original VMS.

>>> Sector 7 has offered such products for decades. Without taking away
>>> the VMS customer base.
>> 
>> Maybe they have.
> 
> That is something we would know about.

You mean “would not know about”?

> They have customers, but not nearly as many as those migrating
> natively to other platforms.

I think we’ve discussed their product before. Reading between the lines of 
their case studies, seems their product lacks some of the niceties that it 
should be possible to implement on top of the Linux kernel. DECnet, I 
think, was one thing they seemed to be missing.