[Info-vax] Whither VMS?

[Richard B. Gilbert]

Bob Eager wrote:
> On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:57:31 -0400, John Reagan wrote:
> 
>> "Bob Eager" <rde42 at spamcop.net> wrote in message
>> news:7gvj6hF2ricj3U4 at mid.individual.net...
>>> On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:46:35 +0200, Michael Kraemer wrote:
>>>
>>>> Paul Anderson schrieb:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Unix is older than VMS but don't confuse me with the facts.  ;-)
>>>> At worst the difference is a few years only (and don't confuse Multics
>>>> with Unix), which is insignificant in hindsight of 30* years.
>>> Anyway, 32 bit UNIX didn't arrive until *after* VMS. One would have to
>>> compare early UNIX (even on the PDP-11) with 16 bit VMS (or RSX-11, as
>>> we know it)! :-)
>> The Perkin-Elmer 8/32 (a 32-bit computer) ran a flavor of UNIX and was
>> in the field before the first VAXen.  My former employer had one.  It
>> was the first non-PDP-11 computer to run UNIX.
> 
> <pedant>
> UNIX first appeared on the PDP-7, in around 1970. OK, it was written in 
> assembler...!
> </pedant>
> 
> Anyway...I'd be interested in dates. UNIX didn't go (semi-) public until 
> about 1976 (I started using it in July 1976). Not sure about first VMS 
> dates but I thought it was about then. Presumably the PE 8/32 (that was 
> the Interdata later, wasn't it?) post-dates the PDP-11 version going 
> public as v6?
> 
> Perhaps VMS was later than I thought, but 1976 sticks in my mind.
> 
> 
> 
> 

Try 1978 for VMS and the VAX 11/780.  First customer shipment could have 
been WAY after that but I think 1978 is a good date for the hardware and 
software.