[Info-vax] Opportunity for VSI?

[Dave Froble]

On 12/14/2018 10:16 AM, gérard Calliet wrote:
> Le 14/12/2018 à 14:10, johnson.eric at gmail.com a écrit :
>> On Thursday, December 13, 2018 at 10:18:13 PM UTC-5, Bill Gunshannon
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Wishful thinking.  The machines used in University level courses do
>>> not jump around from one OS to another at the whim of some professor.
>>> I had boxes running Windows, boxes running Linux, boxes running BSD
>>> and sometimes boxes running more obscure OSes for special projects.
>>> They aren't interested in comparing anything to VMS because there is
>>> no one left who knows what VMS is.  There are no textbooks that even
>>> mention it.
>>
>> I share Bill's general thoughts on the topic.
>>
>> I'm probably one of the youngest contributors here. I graduated 25 years
>> ago and had never touched or even heard of VMS. Even then - and this
>> is 25 years ago! - it was an odd duck. The only thing odder and older
>> than
>> VMS (to my young eyes) was IBM's MVS and the 3270 terminal.
>>
>> Again to my eyes then and now - it's simply an old man's OS. A curiosity
>> at best. A time when data center operators wore shirts and ties like what
>> I would see in old black and white photos.
>>
>> It would be like expecting the car shop kids to want to learn about steam
>> powered cars. Uhm, yeah sure, for an afternoon I guess, but meanwhile
>> there is a ton of other _modern_ and _relevant_ things that everyone
>> has to learn. The computational world is huge and spending one's most
>> precious resource - your time - on something like this just doesn't
>> have any payout.
>>
>> Unfortunately, VMS has nothing distinctive to offer to the modern
>> student that can't be learned easier and faster elsewhere.
>>
>>
>> EJ
>>
> Done. I'm beginning to understand the "goal" here, at c.o.v.: some
> bitter discussions between "old men".
>
> And, no, no, you are proving you are older than all, here. The war
> between the old and the modern is the oldest war, the most sterile, and
> the most absurd.
>
> What is really new with VSI is that it proves it is possible to innovate
> with very ancient things. And VSI is not doing "wishfull thinking".
>
> The innovation is not to redo the old errors with new modern faces, it
> is creating really new improvments on really good things.
>
> And I'm sure there are new computer genius who don't think "réinventer
> l'eau sucrée" is an interesting topic.
>
> And thanks a lot. It seems you are saying a very common opinion, here.
> Fresh to hear that as it is.
>
> Gérard Calliet

Everyone is entitled to an opinion.  It doesn't even have to be a 
particularly good opinion.  (Applies to me too.)

I've tried several times to look at *ix.  Every time I've gotten 
confused and gave up.  Hey, maybe it's just me, Dumb Dave wasn't meant 
to understand a "real" OS.  But strangely enough, with one known 
exception, and not on VAX, VMS has never left me confused, unless C was 
installed on the system.

Then again, perhaps the geeks like complexity.  Maybe it makes them feel 
superior.  Just confuses me.

-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc.      E-Mail: davef at tsoft-inc.com
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