Re:OpenVMS on x86
by icedchai on Friday May 06, 2022 @12:16PM
(#31286925)
Why would they bother? It's a dead platform and hobbyists aren't going to pay big bucks. All the VMS licenses you need are a couple of google searches away, anyway. It was "liberated" years ago.
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Re:OpenVMS on x86
by yjftsjthsd-h on Friday May 06, 2022 @12:45PM
(#31287255)
I would have naively assumed that they didn't like being a dead platform, in which case getting some sort of hobbyist interest is a prudent move.
OP is asking about OpenVMS *on VAX*, 3 CPU architectures ago, which is definitely a dead platform
Re:OpenVMS on x86
by yjftsjthsd-h on Friday May 06, 2022 @04:57PM
(#31289544)
I think the logic applies for as long as they have customers using the platform. If there are paying customers on ancient hardware, or emulators thereof, then I would expect it to be in their interests to have a way to get new blood to support that.
There was a large VMS software shop in the area. They had moved from VAX to Alpha in the mid 90's. I remember some dude there, back in the mid 90's, showing me a 4 CPU system with a gigabyte of RAM. That was unheard of then. DEC did some amazing stuff. When Compaq acquired it, it was a sad day indeed. They made PC clones, while DEC had their own CPUs and operating systems.
After the Alpha was canceled, the local shop gave up on VMS, ported everything to Linux and IBM AIX, and moved on. Seems like a wise move.
VMS has been dying for decades. I suspect any serious business has ported their app to another platform.