[Info-vax] Opportunity for VSI?

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 12/13/18 10:44 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 12/13/2018 10:18 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> On 12/13/18 9:53 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>>> Stephen Hoffman  <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> wrote:
>>>> To initiate a vendor-specific degree-granting program or a trade school
>>>> job-training program, most any school is going to want more than media
>>>> and download codes and a rack of free servers.  Servers that'll
>>>> probably quickly be running Linux too, but I digress.  The folks
>>>> responsible for the program are going to want funding for staff, and
>>>> installation and hardware support, and sundries.
>>>
>>> Right.  You're not going to get that, you can't even hope for that.
>>>
>>> What you CAN hope for is for colleges to use VMS in an operating systems
>>> class for comparison purposes... set up a small cluster of generic 
>>> hardware
>>> to run VMS one day, Linux the next day, maybe Windows the day after 
>>> that.
>>
>> 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.
> 
> That may have been the way of thinking for 10-20-30 years ago.
> 
> Today both teachers and students can spin up as many VM's as they want
> on their own laptops.

Can, yes, but they have no desire to play with anything.  They
use what is required for their coursework and that is both
students and professors.

> 
>> 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.
> 
> Probably not many. But none????

Feel free to point one out.  And list what CS Departments are
using it.

> 
>> Like the HP educational program there are too many people who
>> have no experience or understanding of just how an academic
>> CS department works trying to make plans for them.  If I
>> couldn't keep VMS in a department that already had hardware,
>> licenses and operational systems how can you possibly expect
>> people who have never used it, seen it or even heard of it
>> to suddenly decide to put out the expense and effort needed
>> to incorporate it into an Operating Systems Course?
> 
> Interest in looking at something different.

They don't get paid for looking at something different.
If you had any idea how much time and work goes into
making any changes to curriculum you would better
understand how tough a battle it would be to get
VMS back into any program.  Even ABET accredited
programs are only required to expose the students
to two different OSes in their coursework.  Windows
and Unix/Linux meet that requirement and there are
usable textbooks to do it.  Someone mentioned using
endowments to get VMS back in academia.  I doubt
you could even do that by paying for an Endowed
Chair for VMS in a CS Department.  The cost would
be millions and the return would be $0.  And that
assumes you could even find a professor with the
needed background to occupy that Chair.

bill