[Info-vax] Where to locate software

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2016-06-11 12:45:24 +0000, Kerry Main said:

> Well, as I recall, AltaVista and NorthernLight used to be pretty 
> impressive search engines.

"Alta Vista is a very large project, requiring the cooperation of at 
least 5 servers, configured for searching huge indices and handling a 
huge Internet traffic load."

That comprised a pair of AlphaStation 250 boxes at 266 MHz, an 
AlphaStation 400 at 233 MHz, a DEC 3000 model 900 for spider, and a 300 
MHz AlphaServer 8400 Turbolaser box, with an aggregate of 130 gigabytes 
of RAM and a half-terabyte of storage.    The computers were all 
running Unix.

The web has grown in the ensuing ~twenty years, with attendant 
increases in the user query load, the activity of the crawlers, and 
coping with the effects of SEO, of course.

Having a fast search engine integrated into OpenVMS — just for local 
content — would be handy.   We're way past when having a half-terabyte 
of storage was notable, after all.

Being able to maintain OpenVMS and to better structure applications for 
app stacking, now that's also interesting.   Those five boxes — were 
they running OpenVMS, and not Unix — would involve maintaining 
stability- and security-related patches and application code to 
current, and promptly rolling out TLS patches and other updates for 
their systems.   Preferably also with the applications designed for 
easy deployment.   Which is still an entirely locally-implemented 
and/or documented and/or entirely manual process, even twenty years on.



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