[Info-vax] 2013 OpenVMS Boot Camp

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <nospam-B2BF85.09184514012013 at news.chingola.ch>,
	Paul Sture <nospam at sture.ch> writes:
> In article <kd0477$oga$1 at reader1.panix.com>,
>  JohnF <john at please.see.sig.for.email.com> wrote:
> 
>> Bill Gunshannon <billg999 at cs.uofs.edu> wrote:
>> > DTL <didier.morandi at gmail.com> writes:
>> >> VMS is dead, buried and forgotten. Well, not for the US DOD, 
>> > Any use of VMS within DOD is minimal and trivial.
>> 
>> I know nothing about it, but thought a large part of the
>> reason for HP's ongoing VMS support was very long term
>> contractual support obligations to DOD inherited from DEC.
>> Is that not right? Or, if right, what's the short version
>> of those obligations? And how quickly is VMS support likely
>> to fade away after they expire?
> 
> That was the story a decade or so ago.  There may of course be systems 
> in use which are not seen by normal military staff, 

And you would not consider that trivial and oscure?  How important
can any system be when you don't think it necessary for your IT
experts, the ones you call on when all the regular folks are baffled,
the ones chosen for their position based on their level of expertise
and experience, are not only kept totally uininformed of it but are
told, in no uncertain terms, that the OS is dead and of no interest
to DOD.

>                                                     but are critical for 
> the manufacture and testing of military hardware.  

That would be the responibility of the manufacturing contractor, not
the DOD.  A deal with Boeing or General Dynamics is not with the
government.

>                                                    Planes tend to have a 
> fairly long lifespan, and that can get extended beyond original plans.

Name a plane that uses VMS to fly?  Other than J-Stars, which doesn't
"need" VMS to fly.  Is J-Stars even on VMS any more?

This actually made me curious so I went out and looked.  Here's an
item that mamny here should find interesting.
     "The OWS operating system (Open VMS) will be upgraded to a
      modern Linux OS architecture".

Taken from a 2012 AF document justifying the 2013 budget item.

http://www.dtic.mil/descriptivesum/Y2013/AirForce/stamped/0207581F_7_PB_2013.pdf

Other interesting note:
    "the 19" OWS display will be replaced with 27" displays, and software
     applications including Open Office (MS Office-like) and MoveINT Client
     will be installed."

Open Office (MS Office-like)  --  iintersting.  :-)

> 
>>    Actually, HP's support of the VMS hobbyist program seems
>> unexpectedly pleasant, so to speak, and I doubt it falls
>> under any DOD contract requirement. So it's hard, at least
>> for me, to infer HP's exact attitude towards VMS.
> 
> There are probably many flavours of attitude within a corporation as 
> large as HP.
> 

Indeed.

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>