[Info-vax] What is VMS?

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 12/20/2011 1:40 PM, seasoned_geek wrote:
> On Dec 20, 2:33 am, John Wallace<johnwalla... at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> On Dec 19, 10:48 pm, seasoned_geek<rol... at logikalsolutions.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> On Dec 18, 8:51 am, Skip Morris<mor... at skip.net>  wrote:
>>
>>>> On Dec 17, 9:47 pm, seasoned_geek<rol... at logikalsolutions.com>  wrote:
>>
>>>>> On Dec 11, 6:42 pm, Connor Cooper<rockyc... at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>
>>>>>> What is VMS? What is it good for? How come it has the prefix 'Open',
>>>>>> yet it is not open source? what are some good guides for using it? I
>>>>>> have already registered for a hobbyist VAX license, but I am not sure
>>>>>> how I should install it on SIMH. Anyone have anything good to say?
>>
>>>>> If you are serious about learning how to develop software and use the
>>>>> various utilities you should obtain a copy of "The Minimum You Need to
>>>>> Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer".  Of course, I'm biased,
>>>>> I wrote it.  You can find it at Barnes&  Nobel.
>>
>>>> As a long-time VMS geek, I just looked that book up to buy a copy on
>>>> general principals.
>>
>>>> However... the price is $150.  Way too much for casual interest.
>>
>>> Um....the list price for a brand new printed version is $90 US.
>>> Please provide a link where you found someone screwing the public for
>>> $150.
>>
>>> In a couple of months there might be an EPUB version available.  I
>>> have an individual working on it now.  All attempts made by all
>>> service providers used by Sony failed in the past, but, I put an
>>> actual U.S. citizen on it, so, should achieve better results.
>>
>> An internet search for this book title plus the word "buy" using a
>> well known search engine finds two of the first three results are from
>> the US and UK websites of a well known store which I believe isn't one
>> of your favourites but is for whatever reason widely used by the
>> public. The UK website has two suppliers at ~£340 used (both seemingly
>> from US suppliers) and the US store has one supplier at ~$140 new.
>>
>> The other top 3 result is a reference to the book, in the Wikipedia
>> article on VMS. The article might well be a decent starting point for
>> Connor's original enquiry about "What is VMS?".
>
> Nobody with the tiniest shred of ethics would even consider doing
> business with Amazon.com, and now you have a shining example as to
> why.  It would be interesting to see what happens if someone actually
> was dim witted enough to order from Amazon.com since I would never
> fill such an order.

The actual sellers claim to have the book in stock.

Arne