Roadmap.

[Jan-Erik Söderholm]

Dec-19 roadmap is now more or less 6 months back. Wasn't there some
saying earlier that roadmaps would be updated each 3 or 4 months?

Even if there isn't much new stuff, it feels better to show an up
to date roadmap to the customers with a more current date...

[IanD]

CORVID-19 also happened which naturally would have added some delay but even so, an update might stop the site starting to appear slightly stale

[Simon Clubley]

Post by IanD
CORVID-19 also happened which naturally would have added some delay but even so, an update might stop the site starting to appear slightly stale

I agree. Even if there is no change in the roadmap, it should have
the date changed on a regular basis so it effectively states the
roadmap has been reviewed and that is the confirmed status as of
the newly updated date.

Simon.

[Jan-Erik Söderholm]

Post by Simon Clubley

Post by IanD
CORVID-19 also happened which naturally would have added some delay but even so, an update might stop the site starting to appear slightly stale

I agree. Even if there is no change in the roadmap, it should have
the date changed on a regular basis so it effectively states the
roadmap has been reviewed and that is the confirmed status as of
the newly updated date.
Simon.

Bump... 2/3 throught August now.

[VMS Software Inc.]

Post by Jan-Erik Söderholm

Post by Simon Clubley

Post by IanD
CORVID-19 also happened which naturally would have added some delay but even so, an update might stop the site starting to appear slightly stale

I agree. Even if there is no change in the roadmap, it should have
the date changed on a regular basis so it effectively states the
roadmap has been reviewed and that is the confirmed status as of
the newly updated date.
Simon.

Bump... 2/3 throught August now.

Dear community,

We are currently working on an updated version of the roadmap. As soon as its redesign is complete and all the info is updated, we will upload it to the website and publish an announcement.

Thank you,

VMS Software, Inc.

[Jan-Erik Söderholm]

Post by VMS Software Inc.

Post by Jan-Erik Söderholm

Post by Simon Clubley

Post by IanD
CORVID-19 also happened which naturally would have added some delay but even so, an update might stop the site starting to appear slightly stale

I agree. Even if there is no change in the roadmap, it should have
the date changed on a regular basis so it effectively states the
roadmap has been reviewed and that is the confirmed status as of
the newly updated date.
Simon.

Bump... 2/3 throught August now.

Dear community,
We are currently working on an updated version of the roadmap. As soon as its redesign is complete and all the info is updated, we will upload it to the website and publish an announcement.
Thank you,
VMS Software, Inc.

Another month now. Of course it is not critical to the
operation of our VMS systems, but...

[Simon Clubley]

Post by Jan-Erik Söderholm

Post by VMS Software Inc.

Post by Jan-Erik Söderholm

Post by Simon Clubley

Post by IanD
CORVID-19 also happened which naturally would have added some delay but even so, an update might stop the site starting to appear slightly stale

I agree. Even if there is no change in the roadmap, it should have
the date changed on a regular basis so it effectively states the
roadmap has been reviewed and that is the confirmed status as of
the newly updated date.
Simon.

Bump... 2/3 throught August now.

Dear community,
We are currently working on an updated version of the roadmap. As soon as its redesign is complete and all the info is updated, we will upload it to the website and publish an announcement.
Thank you,
VMS Software, Inc.

Another month now. Of course it is not critical to the
operation of our VMS systems, but...

... it looks bad because it makes the roadmap (and VSI) look stale.

If there are no changes, then for goodness sake VSI, just put a new
last reviewed date on the front cover and on the website so people
at least know that the information in the roadmap is still current.

Seriously VSI, this stuff matters when it comes to the image you
want to project.

It still says "December 2019" on the website. Sorry VSI, but that's
just pathetic.

Simon.

[Craig A. Berry]

Post by Simon Clubley

Post by Jan-Erik Söderholm

Post by VMS Software Inc.

Post by Jan-Erik Söderholm

Post by Simon Clubley

Post by IanD
CORVID-19 also happened which naturally would have added some delay but even so, an update might stop the site starting to appear slightly stale

I agree. Even if there is no change in the roadmap, it should have
the date changed on a regular basis so it effectively states the
roadmap has been reviewed and that is the confirmed status as of
the newly updated date.
Simon.

Bump... 2/3 throught August now.

Dear community,
We are currently working on an updated version of the roadmap. As soon as its redesign is complete and all the info is updated, we will upload it to the website and publish an announcement.
Thank you,
VMS Software, Inc.

Another month now. Of course it is not critical to the
operation of our VMS systems, but...

... it looks bad because it makes the roadmap (and VSI) look stale.
If there are no changes, then for goodness sake VSI, just put a new
last reviewed date on the front cover and on the website so people
at least know that the information in the roadmap is still current.
Seriously VSI, this stuff matters when it comes to the image you
want to project.
It still says "December 2019" on the website. Sorry VSI, but that's
just pathetic.

I suspect the real difficulty is coming up with realistic dates for v9.1
and v9.2. At the time v9.0 was released, they did say in the associated
webinar that v9.1 would probably not make it this year as the current
roadmap still says. I'm not disagreeing with you about the fact that it
looks bad, but they may very well have a long list of things that aren't
working that have to get fixed before they can come up with a real plan
for v9.1. And then there is this pandemic thing, and even the tech
giants have delayed some releases they had planned for this year.

[IanD]

Slightly stale to stale to moldy now?

If there's nothing to report then perhaps a rough percentage completion?

As a project they must be tracking percentage completion anyhow

[VMS Software Inc.]

Post by IanD
Slightly stale to stale to moldy now?
If there's nothing to report then perhaps a rough percentage completion?
As a project they must be tracking percentage completion anyhow

Hello everyone, the roadmap is available here: https://vmssoftware.com/products/roadmap/. Thank you for your patience.

VMS Software Inc.

[Jan-Erik Söderholm]

Post by VMS Software Inc.

Post by IanD
Slightly stale to stale to moldy now?
If there's nothing to report then perhaps a rough percentage completion?
As a project they must be tracking percentage completion anyhow

Hello everyone, the roadmap is available here: https://vmssoftware.com/products/roadmap/. Thank you for your patience.
VMS Software Inc.

First sentence:

"After analysis of customer requirements and feedback and in order to more
effectively focus engineering resources, VSI will no longer offer OpenVMS
V9.2 on Alpha and IA64. OpenVMS V9.2 will support x86 only."


I'm sure that there is some reasoning behind this.
Now checking the rest...

[Arne Vajhøj]

Post by Jan-Erik Söderholm

Post by VMS Software Inc.

Post by IanD
Slightly stale to stale to moldy now?
If there's nothing to report then perhaps a rough percentage completion?
As a project they must be tracking percentage completion anyhow

https://vmssoftware.com/products/roadmap/. Thank you for your patience.

"After analysis of customer requirements and feedback and in order to more
effectively focus engineering resources, VSI will no longer offer OpenVMS
V9.2 on Alpha and IA64. OpenVMS V9.2 will support x86 only."
I'm sure that there is some reasoning behind this.

They say that it is about engineering resources.

And that sounds very plausible.

One thing is to get the work "basically done" - something
else is to fix the million small things that by themselves
are easy but when added together requires tons of hours.

But I do think that it indicates that VSI will
be rather aggressively pushing customers from
Alpha & Itanium to x86-64.

Arne

[Dave Froble]

Post by Jan-Erik Söderholm

Post by VMS Software Inc.

Post by IanD
Slightly stale to stale to moldy now?
If there's nothing to report then perhaps a rough percentage completion?
As a project they must be tracking percentage completion anyhow

https://vmssoftware.com/products/roadmap/. Thank you for your patience.
VMS Software Inc.

"After analysis of customer requirements and feedback and in order to more
effectively focus engineering resources, VSI will no longer offer OpenVMS
V9.2 on Alpha and IA64. OpenVMS V9.2 will support x86 only."
I'm sure that there is some reasoning behind this.
Now checking the rest...

One big issue would be having the hardware to test new releases.

[John H. Reinhardt]

Post by VMS Software Inc.

Post by IanD
Slightly stale to stale to moldy now?
If there's nothing to report then perhaps a rough percentage completion?
As a project they must be tracking percentage completion anyhow

Hello everyone, the roadmap is available here: https://vmssoftware.com/products/roadmap/. Thank you for your patience.
VMS Software Inc.

Hoo boy is this going to cause some discussion...



Roadmap Update

September 2020 Roadmap (Download)

Dear VMS Nation,

VSI is announcing two roadmap changes. After analysis of customer requirements and feedback and in order to more effectively focus engineering resources, VSI will no longer offer OpenVMS V9.2 on Alpha and IA64. OpenVMS V9.2 will support x86 only.

Please note that this announcement does not mean that Alpha and IA64 customers will not receive new functionality on those server platforms. VSI will continue to update the VSI OpenVMS V8.4-X base with new features such as the recently announced OpenJDK 8, Samba, Apache, OpenSSL, CRTL improvements, and more. The new Open Source GFS2 file system will be enabled on IA64 and Alpha (subject to customer demand).

Note that mixed architecture clusters with VSI OpenVMS V9.2 for x86 and earlier OpenVMS releases of IA64 and Alpha will be supported

VSI will deliver one more complete release on IA64 to consolidate defect repair and enable the P441 12Gb Smart Array IO card on i6 platforms. This release will be called OpenVMS V8.4-2L3 and is expected to be available Q4 2020. VSI will then periodically deliver Update Kits with defect repair and new functionality that can be applied to OpenVMS V8.4-2L3 for IA64.

As VSI develops OpenVMS on x86, we have adopted a delivery model which provides improvements in the operating system and associated software components to customers and partners as soon as they are ready. This means that for the Early Adopter Kit releases (V9.0 and V9.1), we expect to release new updates on a monthly or bi-monthly basis with functional and stability improvements along with expanded customer participation. It is our intent that this delivery model will improve predictability of delivery and proper feature prioritization by tightening the feedback loop between VSI and our customers and partners.

The second roadmap change is a shift in the TCP/IP network stack strategy. Our focus has been on developing VSI TCPIP, based on the Process Software Multinet code base, as a replacement for VSI TCPIP Services for OpenVMS. However, VSI has decided to change direction and is planning new releases of VSI TCPIP Services for OpenVMS for Alpha, Integrity, and x86 to allow customers to maintain their current network configuration if they choose. These new releases will consolidate existing ECO kits and will provide updated cryptography in SSH, SFTP, and SCP. VSI will provide schedule details on new VSI TCPIP Services releases as our plans solidify.

Customers who are interested in the features offered by the Multinet TCPIP network stack should contact Process Software directly.

A summary of the updated VSI OpenVMS operating system roadmap is as follows. See roadmap slide deck for details:

H2 2020 - OpenVMS V9.0-X EAK released monthly (first release May 15 2020)

H1 2021 - OpenVMS V9.1 EAK for x86

H2 2021 - OpenVMS V9.2 production release for x86

Click here for state of the x86 port updates

Note that the roadmap file is refreshed periodically. If you want to bookmark the roadmap, link back to this page URL, rather than to the PDF file link, to ensure you get the latest version of our roadmap.

For product and development announcements, visit our Updates page for the latest news.

[Phillip Helbig (undress to reply)]

Post by Jan-Erik Söderholm
"After analysis of customer requirements and feedback and in order to more
effectively focus engineering resources, VSI will no longer offer OpenVMS
V9.2 on Alpha and IA64. OpenVMS V9.2 will support x86 only."
I'm sure that there is some reasoning behind this.
Now checking the rest...

Seems obvious. Those who want long-term support for VMS have to go x86.
VSI versions for Alpha and Itanium are just bridges (but necessary
ones).