[Info-vax] free shell accounts?

[Stan Radford]

Hi,

I have been lurking on this newsgroup for awhile and would like to try my
hand at VMS but I don't have any hardware. I realize I could run a version
on SIMH but I want to try to see what I am getting into before I do that and
running on real hardware is always the best way to go. I ordered a few books
that will hopefully arrive soon and would like to ask: are there any free
shell providers for VMS so I could see what this is all about?

Is there any graphical desktop and will it work over normal X-forwarding
from a shell account or is everything command line? I am fine with command
line but a GUI is sometimes easier when using a shell account especially if
they only allow you to sign on once because then it's harder to be in an
editor and read man pages etc. unless Emacs is running there.

Best Regards,

Stan Radford