[Info-vax] Where is VMS used for new projects?

[Michael Kraemer]

MG schrieb:
> On 16-2-2011 17:09, Michael Kraemer wrote:
> 
>> Do you actually believe this lame excuse?
>> Isn't VMS allegedly "unhackable", so it wouldn't
>> make a difference whether the public knows or not?
> 
> 
> Forgive me, excuse me for the possible grief I may have caused you, 

you didn't, no problem.

> but 
> I was under the impression that this is the VMS usenet/newsgroup?  It 
> surely wasn't my intention to offend you or otherwise upset you in any 
> way.  I'll try to be more sensitive in the future.
> 
> I regret to have to tell you that I'm unaware of uttering any "lame 
> excuses," I was merely thinking of a possible reason why we relatively 
> hear so little about VMS in this day and age.

Lame excuse: not from you.
But I always wonder about those "stealth customers"
which allegedly do heavily invest in VMS, but
nobody should know.

> As for the allegation, that VMS is "unhackable."  Wasn't that proclaimed 
> by the folks at the DEFCON conference at the time? 

Who's that? A branch of NSA issuing security certificates?

> You're free to 
> disprove them.  The excellent "Deathrow" OpenVMS cluster invites you to 
> test the security.  They're running V7.3-1.

You can't prove that something doesn't exist.
If I can't hack it, that wouldn't mean anything.
In fact, VMS was hacked quite often, but that
was in the distant past, when a lot more people had
access to it.

> 
>> In that case, how do you know they run VMS?
> 
> To reverse this question:  How do you know they don't?  (If one isn't 
> told, which was my point.)

> 
>> I'm sure they have more sensible reasons than that,
>> price, availability of software, future prospects etc. 
> 
> It was a literal quote, so please don't kill the messenger.  I can point 
> you to the original article, if you'd like me to?  (It's in Dutch, but 
> maybe you can run it through Google Translate.)

Probably useless, since it would loose a lot of
subtle irony.

> 
>> Dream on. What's out the door never comes back.
> 
> 
> Weren't there quite a few companies in the 1990s that switched to 
> Windows NT briefly then switched back to UNIX/-derivatives?  (Perhaps 
> also the case for VMS.)

Such as?
I wish it were that way, but at best such migrations were delayed,
but never reversed.

> 
>> Migrations always have problems. And how do you know the Dutch railways'
>> problems come from the "wrong" OS?
> 
> 
> Whenever there are problems, as announced on the radio (for example), it 
> are almost always "system malfunctions."

And this means "operating system"?
Judging from experience with german railways,
problems more likely are due to trivial hardware failures.

> 
> 
>  - MG