[Info-vax] One possible market for VMS: secure credit card

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2015-03-23 13:23:16 +0000, Bob Koehler said:

> In article <memjti$o5s$1 at news.albasani.net>, Jan-Erik Soderholm 
> <jan-erik.soderholm at telia.com> writes:
>> 
>> Right. And then we'd have the same situation there as with any other OS 
>> used today, of course.
>> 
>> I do not think these problems with go away simply by changing the OS...
> 
>    Everytimte I hear this I wonder how it was then, that back when just 
> about everyone solved computer problems with "get a VAX" (running VMS), 
> and everybody knew it, we had so few of these problems.

True.  But then that was also before the internet, and before the brief 
time of the open internet and open networks (the Morris worm, WANK), 
and before ubiquitous connectivity, and before the era of volumes of 
digital cash sloshing around that has made computers into such 
profitable targets.

>    It's not as if VMS always had the small volumes that it has now.

True.  Though what were considered large volumes back then, are no longer, too.

The VMS advertising referenced 450,000 users 
(<http://www.computerworld.com/article/2580716/computer-hardware/q-a--hp-s-peter-blackmore-on-rivals--postmerger-strategy.html>), 
versus a billion systems (and how many users?) of what are now 
considered the major client platforms, plus the additional systems that 
are the back-ends for those client systems.  In this area, VMS is 
either a back-end system for a few of these clients and associated 
applications, or is a back-office system.


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