Re: Wonderful things happen to an OS when it has an internal champion

On Aug 11, 7:44 pm, "Paul Raulerson" <p...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
A fantastic summation Doug!


Thank you.

What do you think would happen if a third party offered to partner with HP
to port
VMS to a mainstream processor?

I really don't know whether HP would be receptive or not. The third
party (3p) would have to carry enough weight for HP to listen, and the
3p would have to have a compelling reason for wanting the port to
happen.

A media company or someone like an AOL or Google who has an Internet
Application Service vision, maybe. I imagine it would have to be a
current big VMS user who understands VMS' advantages, so I don't know.
Ignoring the doomsday "VMS dies" scenario for now, I think the spin-
off, break-off one is more likely, but an HP-sees-the-light one is
most desirable.

A few years ago, I could have come up with a few 3p's who might be so
inclined, but Windows & *nix have grown up to the point that most of
the reasons are gone. Back then I would have named Microsoft or one of
the MS wanna-bees as most likely to buy VMS and port it to x86. No
longer likely, though.

The need for greater security, however will not go away, but will
continue to grow.

I think that as the world becomes even more connected, more
applications with pieces running from the net rather than locally,
browser and desktop more integrated, then OpenVMS should look more
attractive at both ends of the scale.

As long as Microsoft keeps struggling with security, and getting
hammered in the press, that door is open. (Vista's "increased
security" seems to mean constant clicking on "are you sure you want to
do that?" which isn't really "built-in" security, is it? Well, there a
few improvements and it comes with AV/AS active by default, but I turn
off most of that and install my trusted favorites.)


x86 comes to mind, but if there were a spin
to address
the hardware sales angle, Power might be a tempting target. More like a VAX
than the
x86 is anyway... :)

You mean "more like Alpha" I think? Power is RISC. I don't know Power
intimately, but do I know it's a completely different beast. With
Apple moving to X86-64, I can't guess what IBM's plans might be for
Power. I know IBM is helping push x86 performance up the scale. If it
were up to me (which it isn't) I wouldn't port to Power. Then again, I
don't know how Cell might factor into it all.

If the Intel Terra-scale stuff (discussed elsewhere) replaces both x86
and Itanium, it'll start at the top and flow down. And when it gets to
a certain level of "down," it had better run the ton's of x86 software
waiting there or it'll open the door again for the next (or this) AMD.
Seems like x86 is the way to go.

[harp begins playing in the background]

If I could make a VMS wish and have it come true, I'd want it to run
on X86 and I'd want to see at least a SOHO version sitting on the
local computer store's shelf along side Windows, RH & the other
Linixes(-ices?) at a competitive price. I'd like to see a polished
OpenOffice (or something even better) and a lot of other OpenVMS/SOHO
type software available OTS and even preloaded on a few PCs. I'd like
to see a marketing/advertising blitz that would make people forget
even the Mac and Win98 intro's.

I'd like to see OpenVMS everwhere from the Desktop to the Data center,
and when x86 rises to the top of the enterprise world, I'd like to see
OpenVMS there and ready.

[cymbals crash]
[choir sings] "If wishes were fishes..."

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: New itaniums out at 2.5x perform gain
    ... stuff installed and running on VMS. ... somehow easier to port it to x86-64. ... Given that active investigation of porting VMS to x86 was actually under way in the early '90s, suggesting that there's any insurmountable obstacle involved seems a bit unreasonable - especially now that x86 has become 64-bit. ... Alpha sales at this point in time is a very wrong mistake). ...
    (comp.os.vms)
  • Re: Could a PC do this?
    ... architecture to immediately be competitive with x86. ... free campus licenses of VMS on ... for ISV's to port their Alpha apps to? ...
    (comp.os.vms)
  • Re: SGI files for chapter 11
    ... HP are highly unlikely to port it to x86. ... for an equally long period of time the VMS engineers that hang out here ... Presumably they still believe that IA64 is ...
    (comp.os.vms)
  • Re: SGI files for chapter 11
    ... HP are highly unlikely to port it to x86. ... VMS sales took a devastating dive after the Alphacide from which they have never recovered. ... To all appearances the port of VMS to Itanic was funded at least in significant part by the Intel Alphacide deal - something which Intel does not seem very likely to repeat for another port. ... HP likely viewed the VMS port as in part worthwhile in its visible support for Itanic. ...
    (comp.os.vms)
  • Re: Revival of Alpha?
    ... > to force VMS users to purchase specific models? ... to an x86 port of VMS. ... I suppose if they can write one for Alpha and another one for Itanium, ... The cost of developing CPUs these ...
    (comp.os.vms)