[Info-vax] New CEO of VMS Software

[Dan Cross]

In article <un7ren$3s7nl$1 at dont-email.me>,
Lawrence D'Oliveiro  <ldo at nz.invalid> wrote:
>On Thu, 4 Jan 2024 21:11:49 -0500, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>
>> Have you noticed how the world has moved from Windows to Linux with
>> Wine?
>
>Yes. Look at the (Linux-based) Steam Deck, which has been making some 
>inroads into the very core of Windows dominance, namely the PC gaming 
>market. Enough to get Microsoft to take notice.

That's not Linux with wine.  You can install Wine on the steam
deck, but their success has much more to do with their native
architecture.

>> MS tried WSL1 and changed to to a VM model with WSL2.
>> 
>> 2 x commercial failure.
>
>On the part of Windows, not on the part of Linux.

2024 will be the year of the Linux desktop.  I can feel it!

>>>>> 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.
>> 
>> If you call both a CPU and an underlying foreign OS kernel for "a new
>> architecture" then yes.
>> 
>> But the reality is that it is very different.
>
>New CPU -- check
>“underlying foreign OS kernel” -- this was about porting the same kernel 
>onto a different CPU. In both cases.
>
>So tell me again: “very different” how?

I think, again, you are talking at cross-purposes: my suspicion
is that Arne is referring to a VMS compatibility layer built on
top of Linux, not the effort of porting VMS to x86_64.

That said, VMS was not originally written for portability and
wasn't ported to anything other than successive version of the
VAX for the first 10 or so years it existed; Linux was ported
to the Alpha pretty early on (sponsored by DEC; thanks Mad Dog).
So Linux filed off a lot of portability sharp edges for the
machines at the time pretty early on, when it was still pretty
small; VMS not so much.

	- Dan C.