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After 47 years, OpenVMS gets a package manager (VSP)
- speed_spread 2y agoCongratulations on the new package manager. But despite its name, OpenVMS is still actually not open.
- tombert 2y agoYeah, that has always confused me. When I first started playing with Linux and BSD, I would see OpenVMS popping up in my searches, only to find that it wasn't actually open. I'm sure there's legacy reasons for that, but it always sort of annoyed me because I wanted play with it
- bitwize 2y agoIt's "open" in the sense of the Open Software Foundation, OPENSTEP, or OpenGL. Back in the pre-CATB days, "open" meant "developed by a consortium rather than a vendor", or perhaps even just "ported to more than one CPU architecture". This latter sense is what is meant in OpenVMS, as it was ported to DEC Alpha CPUs in the mid-90s.
- flomo 2y agoI believe in this case, "open" = supports UNIX/POSIX apis.
- actionfromafar 2y agoAnd that there was documentation on how it worked.
- zie 2y agoIt was literally a complete bookshelf completely full for the docs.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- tom_ 2y agoAlways bothered me too. At least POSIX is actually a POS.
- skissane 2y ago> But despite its name, OpenVMS is still actually not open. This is a very anachronistic complaint - DEC renamed VMS to OpenVMS in 1992, and at the time “open” had nothing to do with “open source” since that phrase wasn’t even coined until 1998. In 1992, “Open” meant “open standards”/“open systems” - support for industry standards instead of proprietary ones - most importantly POSIX. VMS became OpenVMS when it acquired POSIX compatibility. And other vendors used the same branding-IBM offered mainframe POSIX compatibility under the names OpenEdition (MVS) and OpenExtensions (VM)
- KerrAvon 2y agoIt’s not anachronistic to make this complaint about a product still being sold in 2025. The product name is now an anachronism.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- technothrasher 2y ago> since that phrase wasn’t even coined until 1998. This idea that Christine Peterson invented the term open source in 1998 is revisionist history. I personally remember the term being used during the early 90's, and here's a Usenet thread from 1990 that backs up my memory: https://web.archive.org/web/20220213152832/https://www.tech-insider.org/personal-computers/research/1990/1126.html https://web.archive.org/web/20220213152832/https://www.tech-... (The relevant text is a little way down in the thread: "BSD's open source policy meant that user developed software could be ported among platforms...") Heck, here's a Caldera press release from 1996 that argues directly against your point that OpenVMS couldn't have been confused with open source. In the press release, Caldera announce their "OpenDOS" which is, they say, an "OPEN SOURCE CODE MODEL FOR DOS" https://web.archive.org/web/20200521004332/http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/fall96/0269.html https://web.archive.org/web/20200521004332/http://www.xent.c...
- icedchai 2y agoI agree and remember similar. I wouldn't be surprised if someone else says that "open source" doesn't mean "Open Source" in the "official" (whatever that means) sense. Wikipedia seems to support the revisionist history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source
- p_ing 2y agoPer their wiki - > The operating system originally called VAX/VMS was renamed to OpenVMS around 1991 to reflect the high degree of support for industry standards such as POSIX. > This prefix is now generally regarded as silent by OpenVMS users and developers calling the operating system "VMS". https://wiki.vmssoftware.com/OpenVMS https://wiki.vmssoftware.com/OpenVMS
- whartung 2y agoI wonder if someone could have ported pkgsrc to it, create a POSIXish compatibility shim library (maybe there already is one), and, I wonder how much of the denizens lingering in the pkgsrc would have ported over “for free”.
- bbatha 2y agoVMS has had posix compatibility since the 90s. You can install gnu tools on it as well.
- unit149 2y ago[dead]
- icedchai 2y agoIt doesn't support my VAX!
- raincom 2y agoHow many OpenVMS systems are out there in production?
- icedchai 2y agoI haven't seen one since the early 2000's. That company has since ported their code to Linux and AIX.
- metaphor 2y agoWe still operate hundreds of legacy (2nd and 3rd gen) systems with Alpha hosts running OpenVMS in airgapped prod environments across the country. The portfolio of apps we developed/maintain for these legacy systems have all been ported to their modern replacement systems years ago, but we still regularly release updates targeting legacy that maintain feature parity with modern releases.
- Scramblejams 2y agoWhat’s that like? Fun? Annoying? Interesting? Boring?
- metaphor 2y agoAll of the above; being a mid-career IC/TL with visibility into actual outcomes in prod has organically matured a deep respect for boring technology---warts and all---especially when cumulative NRE is well into 10-digit territory. I'll be glad when legacy support hits EOL though, if only for the indirect consequence of unambiguously seperating wheat from chaff as we embrace a new tech stack approaching stability. Although it isn't the case, it sure has felt like we've been operating like cost center baggage these past few years.
- icedchai 2y agoCurious how you handle hardware failures for all that old equipment, etc. Do you have a huge depot of spare parts? Ebay? etc
- rat87 2y agoBut the real question is can you add a Firefox ppa? /jk
- robin_reala 2y agoIt’s considerably out of date, but theoretically yes? https://h41379.www4.hpe.com/openvms/products/ips/firefox/ https://h41379.www4.hpe.com/openvms/products/ips/firefox/
- yablak 2y agoIt already has a package manager. Emacs.
- vaxman 2y agoso politically incorrect
- spl757 2y agooh my
- ajsnigrutin 2y agoyay! Both openvms users will be ecstatic!
- vaxman 2y ago"Translate all custom C, BLISS, FORTRAN and DATATRIEVE applications on this VAX into Golang and reconfigure all custom DCL scripts to run in BASH on Linux. Output the results as a bootable disk image for GB10 processors."