[Info-vax] WHY IS VSI REQUIRING A HYPERVISOR FOR X86 OPENVMS?

[Simon Clubley]

On 2021-01-01, Scott Dorsey <kludge at panix.com> wrote:
> In article <rsljns$1c1u$1 at gioia.aioe.org>, Snowshoe  <no at spam.please> wrote:
>>
>>Is there such a thing as an OS-less VM hypervisor? More specifically, a 
>>hypervisor which is its own OS in a way, you boot it directly (not 
>>booting Linux/Windoze then starting the hypervisor) and pretty much the 
>>only thing you can do once booted is starting virtual machines.
>
> Yes.  This is rather common actually.  VM/370 is of course the great
> grandaddy.
>

I would still regard VM/370 as being an OS, just one with an unusual and
highly specific set of capabilities.

> But once you get to this you then start getting arguments about what really
> constitutes and operating system.

Are MS-DOS or RT-11 operating systems ? I would say yes, because they
provide services to the applications running on top of them. Likewise,
I would say that VM/370 is still an OS because it provides services to
the operating systems running on top of it.

Simon.

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