HP has released a statement on OpenVMS's 30th birthday that indicates the operating system will be around for a lot longer time.

Mark Hurd, HP's Chairman, CEO and President, has recorded a video that can be viewed on an OpenVMS 30th anniversary Web site, stating that OpenVMS remains a "key product" and that HP "will continue to support it for the foreseeable future."

Last week HP released an updated version of the operating system that is due out within the next two weeks, and it will include new hardware support plus other features. The software was released on October 25, 1977, and initially known simply as VMS. It was initially developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which was acquired by Compaq, which in turn was purchased by Hewlett Packard in 2002.

When HP killed off the AlphaServer, which was the hardware that OpenVMS supported, users feared the OS would become the red-haired step-child to HP-UX.  It's good to see that this has not happened.