[Info-vax] Userland programming languages on VMS.

[Simon Clubley]

On 2022-01-31, Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 1/31/22 09:02, Simon Clubley wrote:
>> On 2022-01-31, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>>>
>>> I would run Solaris on SPARC and I do run VMS on Alpha
>>> and keep Linux on x86-64. Are there any benefits
>>> from running Linux on a less common platform?
>>>
>> 
>> One of the reasons Linux has taken off is that you can run it on
>> pretty much every single thing that is physically capable of hosting
>> it in terms of CPU power and memory/other resources.
>> 
>> This includes large mainframes all the way down to tiny embedded boards
>> running on some custom hardware/architecture.
>> 
>
> The same is probably true of just about any OS.  All it takes is
> access to the source and a desire by someone to do the work.  Why
> do you think I would still like to see the source to RSTS released
> into the wild.  RSX which was very PDP-11 specific now has a version
> running on later Z80 family processors.  I have it running here at
> my home and it works quite well.
>

The OS needs to be designed to be portable and also with the architecture
specific features abstracted away into a lower level as much as possible
to stand any chance of that being true.

Linux was designed for that (and so were OS options such as the various
dedicated embedded operating systems). Windows NT was also originally
designed somewhat with portability in mind as well.

The DEC operating systems however were not designed with that level
of portability in mind due to the era in which they were designed.

Simon.

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