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

[Kerry Main]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Info-vax [mailto:info-vax-bounces at info-vax.com] On Behalf Of
> Stephen Hoffman
> Sent: 23-Mar-15 11:09 AM
> To: info-vax at info-vax.com
> Subject: Re: [New Info-vax] One possible market for VMS: secure credit
> card
> 
> 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.
> 

That was an incorrect quote - the generally accepted number back then 
was 450,000 systems not users.

Heck, one Canadian ISP Cust has an OpenVMS cluster on its own today 
that supports 4M+ Customers/end users.

Regards,

Kerry Main
Back to the Future IT Inc.
 .. Learning from the past to plan the future

Kerry dot main at backtothefutureit dot com