[Info-vax] OT: IBM Offering $9-10 Per Share for Sun

[ChrisQ]

Christopher wrote:
> On Apr 5, 6:23 pm, Arne Vajhøj <a... at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>> Christopher wrote:
>>> On Apr 5, 3:59 pm, JF Mezei <jfmezei.spam... at vaxination.ca> wrote:
>>>> Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>>> But I find it very difficult to believe that it is something
>>>>> where the "let a handful of engineers do a little work in their
>>>>> spare time" approach will produce anything usable.
>>>> Usable ? No. Proof of concept that is usable as basis to do a full
>>>> fledged port, Yes.
>>>> The first thing that needs to be done is to find out how VMS can work
>>>> within today's 8086 architectures (modes, memory protection, registers
>>>> etc). Then they need a cross compiler to get the early stuff compiled
>>> A cross compiler is not necessary. gcc will compile the code handily
>>> on an x86 windows, linux, or solaris box.
>> I don't think GCC will output all necessary stuff - VMS linking and
>> object files do have some VMS specific features.
>>
>> Arne
> 
> A POC doesn't need to link against pre-existing VMS binaries.  Just
> compile all the code with gcc and use the standard linker.

I don't know if Itanium boxes are primarily pci. If so, then most of the 
driver work is most likely done as well. Many should compile with little 
or no change. Problem areas will be memory management, kernel and low 
level bios stuff, but it's not insurmountable.

I see the main obstacle as being political in that there would be no 
justification for itanium development at hp were it not for vms and 
hpux. No one there would want to admit that all the money thrown at the 
project was in fact effectively worthless and produced so little return.

To get back on topic, Solaris runs very successfully on X86 and is 
arguably the most capable and fully featured unix around now. Added to 
which it's free to use. With all the open sources linux etc code running 
on Solaris, who in their right mind would want to run Linux anymore 
anyway, except to hack with, especially if you consider the support 
costs ?...

Regards,

Chris