I previously covered x64 OpenVMS release on VMware. This was insanely cool achievement for the operating system. While it had no practical ramification there was one small annoyance. The OS console was on a serial port. In VMware it meant another VM connected via named pipe.
Now OpenVMS x64 supports (limited?) local console on
↫ Virtually FunOPA0.
I think this has been available for a while now – since 2024 – but we hadn’t covered it yet. That same 2024 post also indicates CDE and DECWindows work now, a side effect of a C/C++ compiler bugfix. Sadly, VSI has made it clear that desktop support is not at all on their list of things to spend time on, so don’t expect graphics support to improve meaningfully other than by accident like in this case.
OpenVMS has so much potential. They just need relevance. Like a killer app. We should have a contest to do some brainstorming. What applications could run on OpenVMS that would be of interest?
I can’t tell if this comment is serious, or some type of next level sarcasm… ?
Honestly the only killer app for OpenVMS x86_64 that I can think of is recompiling legacy applications and moving them to the cloud rather than maintaining physical hardware.
All of the things that made VMS special are things that every other OS does or is something that isn’t relevant in modern architectures (os-level clustering).
VMS also has a ton of baggage from a security standpoint because it was introduced in a very different time and the maintainers (not VSI, but HP & Compaq) didn’t bother keeping up with the times.
Don’t get me wrong, I like VMS. It’s a very interesting OS. But it’s an OS for a different era, one that no longer exists.