OpenVMS virtual operating system is widely available for x86 systems

VMS Software has made an official version of OpenVMS 9.2 available for x86 hardware. OpenVMS is a virtual operating system that can run entirely in RAM and was previously known as a well-secured OS.

OpenVMS is now available to all users can be downloaded from the portal, after the operating system was released as a beta a year ago. This is version 9.2, which is suitable for x86 systems. Previously, downloaders first had to obtain a license by registering, but that requirement is no longer there.

OpenVMS is an operating system that was developed in the 1970s. The OS, whose name stands for Virtual Memory System, is especially notable because it uses virtual memory management. That makes the OS interesting for virtual machines. The OS was also known to be safe from attacks, which is why it was often used by banks and in the healthcare sector.

Last year, VMS Software started a port that would make the OS available for the x86-64 architecture. This would initially be intended for HPE and Dell servers, but later support was also added for VMs from KVM, VirtualBox and VMware. In the future, the software also had to work on Hyper-V VMs.

Whether the OS will still be popular for average users remains to be seen. Professional users could port the software to modern hardware after registration, but hobbyists or tinkerers did not yet have access to the operating system. OpenVMS comes standard with some open source tools and languages ​​such as curl, PHP and Python and with Kerberos and OpenSSH.