VMS and supported VAX hardware

[Peter Coghlan]

On Mon, 05 Oct 2015 at 09:12:59 +0200, Pontus Pihlgren wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 03, 2015 at 11:49:28PM -0400, Christian Gauger-Cosgrove wrote:
> > So yes, [Open]VMS 7.3 will run on a VAX-11 series VAX. And probably
> > even on a microVAX as well (though I haven't tried).
> > 
>
> The follow up question then is, is there a reason to avoid 7.3 on lower end VAX 
> models, say VAXstation 2000 or MicroVAX-II, both of which I have.
>
> I suppose disk space is the most pressing issue. What about memory consumption in 
> a basic install?
>
> Or memory usage for options like TCP/IP or DECWindows.
>

My preference is to not go higher than V5.5-2 on the smaller graphics equipped
machines.  This allows the pre-Motif version of DECWindows (I think it is called
XUI?) to be used which is much less of a resource hog than Motif.

Even on machines without a graphics display, significant amounts of Motif are
started up anyway in order to enable remote display and this requires a lot
of disk and memory unless it is disabled.

There is also the pre-DECWindows windowing software called VWS (VAXstation
Workstation Software?) which is even lighter on resources.  I haven't looked at
this for many years but I suspect the cut off for using it is also at V5.5-2.

The lower end VAXstation 3100 machines struggle with Motif.  It takes a long
time to start and when in use, the response feels sluggish.  I can only imagine
what it would do to a VAXstation 2000 or MicroVAX-II.

Regards,
Peter Coghlan.