[Info-vax] Software Distribution Strategies (was: Re: OT: Linux on IA64 and-or Alpha)

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2016-09-01 20:35:42 +0000, johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk said:

> I'm not sure you're using the same definition of 'slipstream' as is 
> used by the Windows world.

I'm referring to ways to get software onto a system expeditiously, 
maintainably, and incurring minimal (and preferably) no delays and 
minimal effort.    There are a variety of solutions for getting 
software onto servers, and  many different needs.   OpenVMS 
installation and patch environment is wholly territory for 
optimizations and for any work, past the most mundane.   Which is why I 
commented on some of the other approaches and tools that are used for 
related purposes.   Like OpenVMS itself, those other tools and those 
other approaches and those other platforms can and do have limitations, 
issues and weaknesses.

> Slipstreaming is something typically done outside MS by IT departments 
> who want to build a local 'standard' Windows installation image 
> (CD/DVD/etc), which would then be used to install a customised 
> 'standard' Windows.

Ayup.    Vendors are not the only folks that are creating kits.   
End-users and ISVs also create install kits and patch kits.    Vendors 
can learn from what end-users and ISVs are doing.   End-users can learn 
from what vendors are doing.   Everybody can learn from what others are 
doing.   If folks are willing, knowledgable, and willing to get 
slightly outside their comfort zones and rote assumptions.

Maybe (eventually) OpenVMS gets dragged forward from the existing 
1990s-era software distribution model and associated tools, whether 
we're discussing the base distro, the layered products, the patches, or 
otherwise.

> As far as I'm aware there is no digital signature mechanism involved 
> either in generating the image or in installing from it, so it could 
> also be a marvellous malware distribution mechanism. (The only time 
> I've worked on aseriously virus-infested site, the virus was introduced 
> by the IT department).

There are things about Windows I wouldn't copy, and there are things 
that I would.   Use good ideas, and improve on them.   Don't simply 
copy.

OpenVMS needs to be at least as competitive, and variously better, 
easier, and more flexible.   Otherwise, why would new users and new 
deployments select OpenVMS and use OpenVMS?   The current way that 
OpenVMS works here — again, using 1990s-era schemes at best — isn't 
easy for existing users, and certainly won't engender enthusiasm in 
potential new users.

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