Paul Anderson was kind enough to comment on my post on OpenVMS here.

He raised a couple of points I feel I need to respond to:

Do you not realize that OpenVMS is more reliable, more secure and has a lower cost of ownership than any other operating system?

In what way, Paul?

And compared to what?

When was that TCO study made? Is it still valid today?

Why should this "dolt", as you call him, want to retrain and move to a UNIX solution when customers such as himself are perfectly happy with OpenVMS?

Errrr, because the OS is dead? Shouldn't that be a valid reason for pulling the ripcord and punching out?

As he grays, and hits the retirement wall, who are you going to call?

Is OpenVMS still being taught in schools? Where will you find replacement droids to take his place?

I called him a dolt feeding at the iron rice bowl exactly because of that.

This is the ultimate in hardware/software lock-in! Apart from IBM, I don't see any other manufacturer designing for such a scenario.

Are you kidding me?

OK, lets see go down the list:

• Hardware obsolete? Check.
• Software obsolete? Check.
• Admins/sysops obsolete? Check.
• Data held hostage? Check.

Don’t bring the mainframe argument here. IBM still develops mainframe stuff today.

Meanwhile, remind me, where is Digital Equipment Corporation?

Oh, okay. So you have the brainchild of a now-defunct company purchased by another defunct company, with the resultant effect that the brainchild is now the bastard stepchild, twice-removed, of a current relevant company.

It has been sixteen years or thereabouts that VMS was ported to Alpha. And almost a decade since the death knell started for OpenVMS. The same VMS/OpenVMS which, if memory serves me correctly, has already been given two reprieves at the gallows.

Moreover, all this time, this moron didn't know that there was going to be a day when he couldn't feed at that trough anymore?

If he, and I'm assuming here that he has been at it for a while, so far hadn't drawn up migration plans for moving data from OpenVMS to a more modern OS, then he's an imbecile.

Actually, he isn't.

His superiors are.

For allowing their enterprise to be held prisoner by an outdated OS and the adherents who worship it.

My position here is simple: no matter how powerful and secure an OS is, if there isn't anyone to run it, or if the manufacturer no longer supports it, or if the OS is no longer being taught to n00bs, then it is useless.

Period.