On Dec 15, 2021, at 10:19 AM, Joerg Hoppe <ioerg.hoppe at gmail.com> wrote: Paul, I learned from http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/vax/vms/training/EY-00014-DP_VMS_Internals… that they don't have a "kernel", but an "executive". From the Preface chapter: "The words "system" or "VMS system" are used to describe the entire software package that is a part of a VAX-11 system, including privileged processes, utilities, and other support software as well as the executive itself. The word "executive" refers to those parts of the VMS operating system that reside in system virtual address space. The executive includes the contents of the file SYS.EXE, device drivers, and other code and data structures loaded at initialization time, including RMS and the system message file. "