Time's up for OpenVMS?
In 2013, OpenVMS was written off. Twelve years on, it runs on x86, it's actively developed, and thousands of customers still depend on it daily.
Angus Durie
I read this article recently on a forum – “The register is reporting that ‘the ancient but trustworthy server operating system’ OpenVMS has been discontinued. From the article: ‘HP never really promoted its acquisition, and OpenVMS suffered from a lack of development compared to HP-UX, itself suffering from competition from Linux. It was only a matter of time, but it’s a sad end. Many of its old-time fans, your correspondent included, cherished a hope HP would move it to x86-64 – but since development moved to India in 2009, OpenVMS has been living on borrowed time. Now, it’s run out.”
The article was dated June 10th 2013, so the timing is correct. At that time, HP were debating what to do with OS. Fortunately, Johan Gedda stepped in and rescued the OS by purchasing key rights from HP and creating VMS Software Inc. (VSI).
So 12 years on, has OpenVMS’s time run out? I don’t think so, it’s still here being developed and still being used by thousands of customers. The people might have changed, but the kernel (get it) is still going strong, the OS now runs on X86 architecture (hallelujah) and previous architectures are still supported. VSI are very responsive (smaller than HP and nimble), they’ve reintroduced the OpenVMS Bootcamps and the VMS universe in general is pretty happy, so no, I don’t think it’s time has run out.
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