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Ask HN: Anyone using proprietary Unix at work?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone using proprietary Unix at work?

#71

Post by kkielhofner »

PreInternet01 wrote: post #5

Yup. SCO OpenServer 5.0.something, for some partner's accounting department. Neither the OS nor the application software have been updated since the late 1990s, but if it works, it works, I guess... (to be honest: the application software is only used to run reports in response to requests from the legal department, but apparently still can't be shut down -- I ask once a year, next upcoming 'query date' in my agenda…

This takes me back! This was roughly 25 years ago so I’ll do my best to remember.

My first job in high school was at a company with the entire business running on SCO Unix. I want to say OpenServer 3, maybe? It was essentially a terminal server with dozens of Wyse 60 terminals attached.

Anyway, as a Linux enthusiast I promptly setup a RedHat 7 install on some old hardware they had lying around. IIRC correctly it was a low-end Pentium but it could handle a PCI 100mbit ethernet card just fine.

Anyway, the goal was to get data to/from the SCO system to something with a TCP/IP stack (RedHat machine) so it could go somewhere - samba shares on the rapidly growing ethernet network, maybe even the internet!

We ended up using UUCP over serial, scripting, and cron jobs to push/pull from directories on each side. The RedHat machine was promptly connected to a 56k modem to do dial on demand and IP masquerading for the ethernet network and uploads of specifically formatted files from the SCO system via FTP to vendors and partners.

Fun times!

Re: Ask HN: Anyone using proprietary Unix at work?

#72

Post by Kon-Peki »

kjs3 wrote: post #19

We have a number of financial services apps running on Solaris. The cost of the licenses and hardware is insignificant compared to the cost of porting those apps to something else. You'll find that as the reason most folks stay on these platforms. We also apparently still have some AIX, but I'm not sure what it supports. AIX is still somewhat popular in financial services; probably others as well. I know of a couple…

> The cost of the licenses and hardware is insignificant compared to the cost of porting those apps to something else

That’s an understatement!

Earlier this year I helped our final Solaris SPARC customer move over to X86/Linux. Every year for the last 5+ years they’ve asked us to extend support for just one more year; they were almost done with the migration! In the end, we had to compile them a few pieces of software with weird configurations because they took the standard AWS Linux and, well, I have no idea what on earth they did to it.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone using proprietary Unix at work?

#73

Post by jzb »

raverbashing wrote: post #62
favorited wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last time I got an MRI, the control room had one of those iconic purple SGI O2 workstations on the desk. I guess they were pretty popular with medical imaging products.

Yes, because SGI could do the "3D stuff" before PCs

Indeed. I remember we got two of those at a TV station I worked at in 1997-1998, used mostly for fancy weather 3D effects. The weather guy was so in love with the system. Meanwhile we were still using 3/4” Beta tapes in the editing bay for reporter packages and network footage…

Re: Ask HN: Anyone using proprietary Unix at work?

#74

Post by bstpierre »

icedchai wrote: post #27

The last "proprietary Unix" I worked with was AIX, way back in 2006. And that was only because their primary customer was an AIX shop. The code itself would actually run on Linux. Previous to that (late 90's, early 2000's) it was mainly Solaris. One place was fairly heterogeneous, and had Solaris, HP-UX, Digital Unix (aka OSF/1, Tru64), and a couple others.

As an intern in the mid 90s I babysat a similar mix. We also had some older SunOS boxes and some Irix, but mostly Solaris. I remember the HP as being the worst to work with of the bunch - for whatever reason if one of the tests was going to be broken it was on the HP.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone using proprietary Unix at work?

#75

Post by KMag »

Stranger43 wrote: post #58

Active HP-UX admin here. the software being run is SAP R3/Oracle and there is plans to replace it, but that is not happening anytime soon due to the usual delays associated with ERP migrations. License cost is a red herring here especially when dealing with enterprise applications from the likes of like SAP, Oracle and IBM, heck were probably paying as much for our SAP on SUSE subscriptions as we do for our HPUX lice…

Itanium or PA-RISC?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone using proprietary Unix at work?

#76

Post by Stranger43 »

KMag wrote: post #75
Stranger43 wrote: post #58

Active HP-UX admin here. the software being run is SAP R3/Oracle and there is plans to replace it, but that is not happening anytime soon due to the usual delays associated with ERP migrations. License cost is a red herring here especially when dealing with enterprise applications from the likes of like SAP, Oracle and IBM, heck were probably paying as much for our SAP on SUSE subscriptions as we do for our HPUX lice…

Itanium or PA-RISC?

Itanium blades.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone using proprietary Unix at work?

#77

Post by grandiego »

jl6 wrote: post #33

AIX on POWER hardware, because it runs SAP, and between IBM and SAP they provide all-encompassing certification and support. Swapping out the OS would invalidate those assurances. Yes, modern SAP runs on Linux. Yes, it would be a good idea to migrate off AIX. But the system has been in place for 20 years and it will be another 5 years at least before that migration happens. There’s a bunch of enterprisey technology t…

I have a client (banking sector) which "recently" (5 years ago) started with AIX since they already had POWER systems running IBM i (i.e. modern AS/400), and had to select a Unix for a new vendor's EFT system; it was reasonable to use the (almost) same hardware and provider.

Another similar client is using Solaris (Sparc) for an analogous application; they are using it since 1996, I think because Sun (Oracle) always provided an easy migration path, so the applications didn't need to be ported.

As in most medium/big enterprises, in both cases the hardware/software price is not the main decision driver, but (IMO) it is the support/SLA, compliance checklists, and overall risk management.

BTW, in these cases Linux is also used for more "internet oriented" applications.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone using proprietary Unix at work?

#78

Post by mootzville »

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

You are kind of combining two things though: legacy systems, and proprietary systems.

There are modern proprietary systems as well. RHEL is a good example.

I'd argue it's not a "small number of entities" though. You'd be shocked by what legacy systems are running in the most important places on the planet...maybe scared. Unfortunately/Fortunately, nuclear facilities aren't running Linux Kernel 6.X

The fact is, a lot (probably most) problems solved with a computer don't need further updates. As long as the hardware continues to function, all is well.

Something you may have not considered is that when the time does come, and the hardware does fail, I'd guess most organizations will opt -- and even go out of their way -- to source those same legacy components they had before to keep things running exactly the same instead of upgrading to a more modern solution.

I've had to do this a number of times for clients. Not long ago, I had to source an old mainboard for a system that was 20+ years old...in doing so I did realize there is some good money to be made if you can source parts for systems about 20 years in the past because the board was like $300 (this was 2017, and the board had a 33mhz processor and like 8MB RAM)

If you don't have to touch these systems, count yourself lucky.

If you do touch these systems, thank you for your service.\

In regards to the modern proprietary systems, there are many, but if you consider RHEL for instance, there is a lot of value for large organizations. They can reduce the number on on-hand personnel whom probably would be less efficient at solving an OS issue than a RHEL engineer. As an example, the Federal Reserve runs modern RHEL...but I'd guess if you dig deep, they have some really old stuff too...

Re: Ask HN: Anyone using proprietary Unix at work?

#80

Post by piyh »

icedchai wrote: post #27

The last "proprietary Unix" I worked with was AIX, way back in 2006. And that was only because their primary customer was an AIX shop. The code itself would actually run on Linux. Previous to that (late 90's, early 2000's) it was mainly Solaris. One place was fairly heterogeneous, and had Solaris, HP-UX, Digital Unix (aka OSF/1, Tru64), and a couple others.

We had AIX at my last job in 2021 and it was the least actively terrible part of our tech stack.
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