Digital (Was RE: Mac "Workgroup Server" (or "network server") hardware & AIX)

[Sean Caron]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016, Dave Wade wrote:

>>>
>>
>> Don’t fret, once OpenVMS v9.0 is released, on x86-64, there won’t be any doubt
>> as to who won.  :-)
>>
>
> Sadly, no one won. I doubt any one (well perhaps not anyone) would consider OpenVMS for a new deployment.
>
> Upgrading existing environments, yes, but a new green field site. It would have to have very good reasons.
> (I know you will all come out with some, but perhaps one for every 10,000 Linux and/or Windows Server deployments.)
>
> Digital is now a fond memory for most. Both VAX and Alpha are no longer manufactured.
>
> I actually wonder if an FPGA VAX chip could be made that would run faster than existing real VAXEN. That could perhaps form the basis of a nice VaxStation...
> ... on browsing I found this...
>
> http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/journal/v7/vax_6000_emulator.pdf
>
> Dave
>

I don't know ... I know the primary market is probably legacy environments 
but I'm really, really excited that OpenVMS is making it to x86-64 and as 
a working sys admin, I wouldn't hesitate to pitch OpenVMS for certain 
situations if I felt it was right for the job ... I'm mostly a UNIX guy 
but I've always thought OpenVMS was cool, too, no prejudice. I encourage 
OS diversity ;)

Particularly in the HPC space ... I would love to put a cluster built on 
VMS against a cluster built on Linux and compare availability, throughput 
and uptime over the course of a year ... Results could be interesting.

I'm sure like a lot of folks on here, I have a lot of positive nostalgia 
associated with DEC (and I'm pretty young) ... I will always be a fan for 
sure. But versus Linux ... which has swept the market ... OpenVMS does 
have some real technical merits to stand on. It doesn't just have to be 
for legacy applications and hobbyists.

Best,

Sean