[Info-vax] Unix on A DEC Vax?

[VAXman- at SendSpamHere.ORG]

In article <h56dncnTV949dGfNnZ2dnUVZ_oKdnZ2d at giganews.com>, "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilbert88 at comcast.net> writes:
>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.

2 or 3?  Send one "Brinks" truck my way.  To quote a Grateful Dead lyric:
"I need a miracle every day."   ;)


-- 
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker    VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG

Well I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.