Posted on 01/10/2006 10:17:04 AM PST by SirLinksalot
I don't use VMS anymore ( I do UNIX and LINUX nowadays ). But I cannot help but feel nostalgic for this venerable Operating System which is reliable, easy to use and program, highly scalable, and virtually unhackable ( and which apparently, is not dead yet ).
I agree. I coded under VMS for six years, and I loved all the system services and library routines. Very powerful.
I wrote assembly for a VAX, it was like writing C.
They forgot to include 'planned obsolesence' in their feature list.
There is plenty of 'old' tech that gets phased out because someone wants to sell you the 'new' thing. But some of the old stuff is still the best.
VMS! now that brings back fond memories. they even had a help feature that was actually understandable.
who can forget sysgen, autogen, authorize, ncp, etc.?
"ran its system for 17 years without a single reboot. Try to accomplish that on today’s systems.
I dunno about that. We ran a Solaris machine for five or six years without rebooting. Then the hardware wore out.
My college (James Madison University) had a VAXcluster when I was a student there 1984-87. Started off with an 11/785, 11/780, and 11/750; by the time I graduated they'd moved up to an 8650, 8600, and the 11/785. As a student operator and Computer Information Systems major, I LOVED those things. Super-easy to work with, far easier than IBM's stuff. Manning the help desk was never easy, but it was a lot easier trying to get the psych majors who were taking a computer stats class up and running on VAX/VMS instead of on, say, MVS.
Later on I worked briefly with a company that was trying to hook an early Windows PC network (circa 1992) running Gupta SQLWindows up with a MicroVAX II as a file server. The Wintel network wasn't capable of doing what they wanted it to do, but that little VAX was absolutely bulletproof.
I've got a soft spot in my heart for those things. :)
}:-)4
"I wrote assembly for a VAX, it was like writing C."
You say that like its a bad thing...
A lot of the reason VMS is still around is that there isn't really that easy of a migration path away from it.
When Windows came out, you could still (and can still) run most DOS programs on it.
Same story here. What a great old warhorse! I still think VMS clustering is the best of class and it's been around for a very, very long time now.
i configured the first state-owned mixed architecture VMS cluster (VAX/Alpha). a lot of unsupported stuff could be made workable under VMS. it was fun in those days!
anybody remember pathworks?
Could you sit on the hill when you were at JMU?
If you don't know what I am talking about, the answer is "no".
I was a Data General (and look alike) geek using IRIS O/S. One of the first true multi user systems. File and screen handling was a little obtuse but you could develop a lot of programs in a hurry.
VMS Rocks!
The DOD has a huge investment in VMS, I can't elaborate on that but some very crucial functions in DOD depend on VMS exclusively
We still use it, running OpenVMS Alpha 7.3-2 on an AlphaServer ES40 with 2 EV67 500Mhz CPUs, 5 Gb of memory. Bulletproof. The system is used to run an Oracle data server.
The lack of support for end-user reporting tools on VMS may cause us to move to Linux at some point (~3-5 years), but the systems (hardwaree and software) are well built and run well.
This doesn't sound right.
As I recall, IBM was building 32-bit machines for decades before the VAXen.
Perhaps the article meant "...first commercially available 32-bit minicomputer..."
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