[Info-vax] Unix on A DEC Vax?

[Richard B. Gilbert]

On 1/18/2013 7:04 PM, Howard S Shubs wrote:
> In article <kdbjbj$srm$1 at dont-email.me>,
>   Stephen Hoffman <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> wrote:
>
>> On 2013-01-18 03:49:30 +0000, Howard S Shubs said:
>>
>>> In article <kda3ji$9a0$1 at dont-email.me>,
>>>   Stephen Hoffman <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>>> As for the emulation market, the folks that are choosing emulation will
>>>> likely continue to use it until the application(s) age out, or the
>>>> management involved ages out, or the organization gets clobbered by
>>>> competition.  But those folks are probably not going to be doing very
>>>> much with the applications running under emulation, as that's usually
>>>> viewed as a dead-end for new investments, even within the organizations.
>>>>
>>>> Hardware emulation is computing's version of the cover band.  Sometimes
>>>> fun.  Variously useful.  But not really what most folks want.
>>>
>>> Perhaps not, but sometimes it's all you can have.  Such as when the
>>> software manufacturer has gone defunct, or might as well have (VMS port
>>> to x86, anyone?).  Unless someone can get HP to release source code.
>>
>> Or in another way of looking at this, your organization decided to use
>> non-portable features and/or platform-specific software, and for your
>> own code you decided not to isolate the use of platform-specific
>> features, and you decided to not invest in maintaining and updating and
>> portability; you decided that an external dependency was an acceptable
>> risk.
>
> So few companies put themselves in this position, after all.  What
> ACTUALLY happened was that when the writing was on the wall, MOST of
> them were able to port away.  Others had management and budgeting issues
> and have, as you said, painted themselves into a corner.
>
>
>> You're asking about DSSI disks for VAX servers in another recent
>> posting.  If that's related to this, then consider the proverbial
>> writing was on the wall for VAX in 1992 or so, with the advent of
>> Alpha.  There's very little business-critical "stuff" that can't be
>> ported in twenty years.
>
> No, that's just for a VAX I've got sitting here.
>
>
>> Steve Jobs wasn't fond of dependencies on outside organizations and
>> entities, as the other vendors could choose to cancel or retarget the
>> products[1], or potentially held ransom.  If your dependencies are more
>> portable or are available from multiple sources, you're much harder to
>> derail.  Is that the cheapest approach over the short term?  No.  But
>> is this the cheapest over a longer term?  Very possibly yes.
>
> Damn straight.  And the longer you wait to move to a new system, the
> more expensive it gets.  There are no new VMS people.  If your company
> needs VMS people, you're going to pay for the privilege.  Smart people
> moved away from VMS quite some time ago, and aren't willing to work in
> the past for less than serious money.
>
> Anyone who goes with a proprietary, general-purpose, operating system
> now is a slow learner.
>

There are a few VAX/VMS and Alpha/VMS people available.  Myself and 
VAXman come to mind.  I'm available for a not terribly outrageous fee!
Two or three "Brinks" trucks can work miracles! :-)

VAXman can speak for himself.