[Info-vax] Creating an open source version of VMS, was: Re: OpenVMS Hobbyist Notification

[Simon Clubley]

On 2020-03-10, Stephen Hoffman <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> wrote:
> On 2020-03-10 13:21:08 +0000, Simon Clubley said:
>> Think about how Linux is much more functional and cleaner underneath 
>> when compared to the original versions of Unix, yet can still compile 
>> and run earlier Unix application level source code.
>
> I'd put something newer underneath than the Linux kernel, if y'all 
> decide to start over.
>

I'm not suggesting that this new operating system be run on top of Linux.

For one thing, any new operating system would need to be able to support
VMS style DLM capabilities in the kernel as well as VMS style clustering,
also in the kernel.

(You wouldn't be able to run existing VMS nodes within such a cluster
however, as such capabilities would need to be implemented from the ground
up without any access to internal VMS knowledge. That means the
implementations would be incompatible internally even though they would
look similar at application/system manager level as defined in openly
published documentation.)

I'm just using Linux as an example of how code written for an older and
completely different version of Unix internally will still compile and
run on Linux.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.