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How Big Is VMS?

(vmssoftware.com)
77 points rbanffy | 1 comments | 03 Apr 25 18:46 UTC | HN request time: 0.327s | source
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jamesy0ung ◴[03 Apr 25 21:08 UTC] No.43575439[source]▶
Is there any reason to use VMS today other than for existing applications that cannot be migrated? I've heard its reliability is legendary, but I've never tried it myself. The 1 year licensed VM seems excessively annoying. Is it just old and esoteric, or does it still have practical use? At least with Linux, multiple vendors release and support distros and it is mainstream, whereas with VMS, you'd be stuck with VSI.
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1. vaxman ◴[04 Apr 25 18:08 UTC] No.43585891[source]▶
That is the kind of comment that a well run bulletin board would moderate. Then again, there are probably not enough VMS systems people left to really have an r-war (short of architecture war).

VMS' key feature over Unix is consistency and beyond that it is being interrupt driven at all levels (no wasted cycled polling except for code ported over using POSIX interfaces). VMS was killed by a confluence of business issues, not because it was obsolete or inefficient.