This world of Unix operating systems was way before my time (I got started with Linux in 2008). One dumb question I have is why does something like this exist in 2022? We have tons of other Linux distro's that can run any number of workloads, is it just a matter of you have all your legacy stuff on OpenVMS and it would be easier to stay on it? Or does OpenVMS provide some feature that you just can't get in Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, etc.
First: It's not a Unix system. It's a whole different tradition. For practical reasons it got "invaded" by the unix userland, though.
But you already answered it yourself. Legacy stuff. And because it is NOT a unix system porting the legacy stuff running on it would be even more difficult.
One one hand, this is mostly for legacy purpose, like OS 2200 for the current Dorados (Univac 1100), Z/OS for the IBM 360/390/Z line, or GECOS on some Bull/GE hardware, all originating from the early 60s and still alive nowadays. Heck, you can even still find TOPS-20 running on some network gear.
On the other hand, VAX is pretty much dead by now and I don't think VMS really was a thing on x86.
The agronomy research company I worked for in college had a small IT department of three programmers/DBAs. They ran Oracle on a big Alpha with some older vaxen serving in auxiliary roles. They had bunches of programs written in VAXBASIC over a couple decades that ran the company, managing the hundreds of thousands of seed strains they were testing.
I’m sure they’ve transitioned in the two decades since, but back then there wasn’t any off the shelf software for their purposes and it would have been an enormous time sink to port over all those old programs.
DEC’s role in the tech industry was enormous and platform transitions can’t happen overnight. OpenVMS provided DEC customers with a lifeline. (Also, VMS != Unix)
Today’s tax day in the US and my bet is that some 50 year old COBOL program running on an IBM zServer is computing over your data.
