OK, one more question about sending email TO an old VAX

[Richard Loken]

On Wed, 24 Feb 2016, Lyndon Nerenberg wrote:

> Good grief, Charlie Brown!  AllIn1 had it's own Bitnet-style routing 
> syntax on VMS?  I am so glad I never knew that.

I don't remember the details of all-in-one at all.  It is possible that
all-in-one just used the standard VMS mailbox but I do not remember.
All-in-One was retired long before VMS was retired.

> Did PMDF run until the end of VMS at AU?  I don't recall you ever 
> mentioning the UCX stuff.  Of course you know I stayed as far away from 
> VMS as was humanly possible :-)  (And just when did the 8650 get 
> retired?  Did it spend any time keeping auvax company behind the 
> woodshed?)

First, we are still running PMDF and we are still running it on our brace
of DS20E Tru64 boxes, the gods have decreed that we will be on Office365
by the end of March but the removal of PMDF will be a separate project
which will be put in motion some time this year.  It is possible that
we will just move it over to a Linux box along with the mailman server
but I would rather retire both PMDF and mailman.

As for the 8650...  Lessee...

     AU purchased an 8600 some time around 1985?
     The 8600 was upgraded in place to an 8650
     The 8650 was traded in on an 8820 for $1.2 million
     Some time in the very late 80s a VAX 4000-300 was purchased
     Circa 1990 the 8820 and the 4000 were traded in for two VAX 4000-500s
     The VAX 4000-500 were upgrade twice in place finally to a 505A
     The VAX 4000 was finally shut off around 2010

So, no, only the 785 suffered the indignity of a slow death in the rain.

PMDF was left running on the VAX 4000 until the end but even I was not
logging into it any more.

I was running a DECstation 3000 Model 400 which was purchsed around 1990
on my desktop until about 2005 when the memory went South, I was looking
into replacing it with yet another Linux box when my boss (Greg) suggested
I go into the machine room and dig the Alphaserver 4100 (retired Unix
Oracle server) out from under the debree and use that so I did.

The 4100 is now running VMS 8.3, Multinet, and PMDF and it was my only 
desktop workstation until 2010 when it lost a power supply so I built a 
linux box while waiting for HP to provide a power supply (lax management 
had left the 4100 on a service contract so I ordered a power supply first 
and told the boss to cancel the service contract second).  The 4100 is
still pouring out noise and heat beside my desk but the linux box has
become my main computer.

I will probably take the 4100 home when I retire on December 31 so it
can warm up my basement.

-- 
   Richard Loken VE6BSV, Systems Programmer - VMS   : "...underneath those
   Athabasca University				   : tuques we wear, our
   Athabasca, Alberta Canada			   : heads are naked!"
   ** rlloken at telus.net **                         :    - Arthur Black