Well, I wrote for the heck of it after the Inquirers article
about maybe IBM buying VMS, and it seems they are either
too stupid, or has "not invented here" syndrome also ...
Sad, isn't it?  They call VMS mature and suggest unix or
$%gag#$%! os400 as an alternative when VMS runs circles
around these and every other os out there ...

Bob,

Your recent e-mail query to Sam Palmisano regarding an article in the
Inquirer.net has been forwarded to me for review and response.

You ask why it would not make sense for IBM to buy the OpenVMS
business. As a former employee of Digital Equipment Corporation, I
share your sense of pride in the quality and functionality of the
OpenVMS operating system. When VMS was first being developed, it truly
represented innovation and leadership in the industry and many newer
operating systems have borrowed concepts and ideas from it. However,
while OpenVMS continues to occupy a substantial niche market position,
most enterprise customers are now looking for more open operating
environments. As noted in the article, Compaq, and now HP, have not
invested to keep up with the requirements of the customer base and the
result is an inevitable decline in installed base. With this market
position, I don't think that it would be economically viable for a
company like IBM to acquire the asset and bring it back up to currency
in terms of capabilities. It's an unfortunate downward spiral of
higher maintenance fees causing more customers to defect. There are
several attractive substitutes to OpenVMS today, with the various
UNIX-based operating systems approaching similar levels of reliability
and availability. And, of course, OpenVMS's traditional competitors in
products like IBM's zOS and OS/400 participate in many of the same
market areas. I'm sure that OpenVMS will be running many enterprise
applications for years to come, but the reality is that this is now a
mature product without a lot of growth opportunity. This doesn't make
an attractive business proposition.

Regards,

Jeanette

Jeanette Horan
VP Software Group Strategy