28 Feb
2009
28 Feb
'09
6:17 a.m.
Subject: Re: UNIX for the VAXstation or AlphaStation
From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:47:24 -0800
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
At 10:54 PM -0500 2/27/09, John Floren wrote:
DEC sold Ultrix32 (unix BSD flavor) and it was installable on most VAXen.
I have 4.2 running on a UVAX2000.
So, I've got both a VAXstation 4000-60 and an
AlphaStation 250 here
and after playing with it for a bit I've decided I don't really care
for VMS so much that I want it on both of them. I'd like to find an
interesting, preferably AT&T-style UNIX to run on one of them, so I'm
hoping some of you can help me figure out my options. So far, I know I
can run:
-NetBSD
-Probably some DEC/HP UNIXes (Tru64 on the Alpha?).
I'd really appreciate perspectives on these different systems,
user/admin experience, etc. I'm not looking to accomplish anything in
particular here, I just want something to play around with on my DEC
hardware while I wait for the PDP-11 :)
UNIX is a waste of good DEC hardware! :-) DEC never sold a UNIX
variant that would run on a VAXstation 4000/60. I think NetBSD and
OpenBSD will both run on it. I'll confess that OpenBSD at least used
to rock on Alpha and can handle a machine with less RAM than OpenVMS
expects. Your choice of OS's are a lot wider for the Alpha. As for a PDP-11, I recommend RT-11, RSTS/E, or
RSX-11M+, not UNIX.
For low end PDP11 Unix up to V7 runs. If you have one of the I&D
machines (11/44, or any of the J-11 cpus) then BSD2.11 is interesting.
For UNIX get a Sun or SGI system, in other words cool
hardware that
only runs UNIX. I did buy a nice DECstation 5000/133 (a MIPS box)
years ago to run NetBSD. I wonder what happened to that machine...
All the DEC mips machines run unix (ultrix).
Or find an Alpha and run true64.
Allison
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |