[rescue] Solaris on a PPC (now VMS)

[Dave McGuire]

On Wednesday, February 5, 2003, at 05:59 PM, Frank Van Damme wrote:
>>> Alright dammit.  I need some ebay links of some kit to run VMS, 
>>> media,
>>> etc.  I swore I'd never put anything in my lab but Sun/Solaris - but 
>>> I
>>> have to learn VMS now - cuz Dave said so.
>>>
>>> :-)
>>
>>    Weirdo. ;)
>
> Lol... I don't know crap about VMS too, I thought it was dead as a 
> stone.

   Not even close.  In the current industry climate, we tend to think of 
operating systems that the Internet is built on (UNIX) and the 
computers on suits' desks (Winblows) as the only things that are 
"modern" or in common use.  This couldn't be farther from the 
truth...indeed, Winblows- and UNIX-running machines combined only 
account for the tiniest fraction of the processors in use in the world 
today.

   VMS in particular is HUGE in non-Internet-connected industries in 
which uptime, reliability, and security is a concern.  The defense 
industry, for example, is swimming in a sea of VMS machines.  These 
aren't little piddly things like "if this system goes down it'll cost 
me money"...it's more like "if this system goes down it will cost 
people their LIVES".  THIS is where VMS shines.

> Can you actually do something useful with it (like: modern applications
> that can run on it)?

   Sure you can.  It's a modern operating system...why wouldn't one be 
able to run modern applications on it?  The most modern applications 
around run under UNIX, and UNIX is much older than VMS...by nearly ten 
years.

   Oh, but "UNIX is in current development and has been 'made' modern", 
you say?  Well, the same goes for VMS.

>  And why isn't it more popular?

   It's plenty popular, the installed base is huge.  Just not where you 
(and a lot of other people) spend most of your time, and it's never 
mentioned in magazines like BusinessWeek.

        -Dave

--
Dave McGuire             "I've grown hair again, just
St. Petersburg, FL           for the occasion."       -Doc Shipley