[Info-vax] DECUServe is a Hobbyist Chapter

[Scott Dorsey]

Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) <helbig at asclothestro.multivax.de> wrote:
>In article <rdq39n$f4f$1 at panix2.panix.com>, kludge at panix.com (Scott
>Dorsey) writes: 
>
>> >> Existing OpenVMS system managers should be forced to download and
>> >> install and configure telnet or ftp or DECnet separately.
>> >
>> >This suggestion has some merit.  VSI can say something like "For 
>> >security reasons we discourage use of these apps.  But if you need them, 
>> >here they are."  And don't make it hard to find and use them.  Perhaps 
>> >part of the distribution, but not installed by default.
>> 
>> This is what many linux dialects do.  It's possible to do this easily with
>> package management; you can install the parts of the system that you want
>> without the parts you don't want without having to manually figure out 
>> dependencies.  A day will come when VMS has integrated package management, and I
>> suspect it will happen before Windows ever does.
>
>When installing VMS from CD, one can choose not to install DECnet.  Even 
>if TCPIP is installed, nothing is configured by default.

Yes, splitting decnet off was a big advance.  But in a perfect world, every
part of the system would be a layered product and they would all just layer on
top of one another.  It took the Unix world many decades before Solaris
was built this way, but now it's become quite ordinary there.  The ability to
build a system that has just the pieces that you need is a big deal in the
modern world where people use the same OS for radically different applications.
--scott
-- 
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."