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OpenVMS State of the Port to x86_64 [pdf]

vmssoftware.com

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Re: OpenVMS State of the Port to x86_64 [pdf]

#81
post #68
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While a factually correct description of what was made available, I don't think that's quite the intended meaning of "open source".

"Open source" historically meant just that: that you could look at the source, in contrast to machine code-only software. Only later did the term got confused with "free software" idea from Stalman and the "preferred form for making modifications" as he put it.

While "source listings as an aid to debugging" was definitely done, and still is (e.g. Microsoft Windows source is available to researchers), Wikipedia disagrees with the use of the term "open source" as ever meaning this.

The term "open source" was first proposed by a group of people in the free software movement who were critical of the political agenda and moral philosophy implied in the term "free software"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_model

Re: OpenVMS State of the Port to x86_64 [pdf]

#83
post #20
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine server that has been up for decades. It can remain live through OS upgrades, hardware upgrades and I believe even architecture changes. It's like places that use mainframes it's probably not a good idea to build a new bank on mainframes but if you have one it's far less risk to keep the mainframe than rewrite everything. OpenVMS has some very unique features but truthfully it's most valuable feature is it run…

But that's the thing: places which fit those requirements usually run some IBM solution (AS/400 and the likes). I've never encountered VMS in production before, so I'm really curious to some concrete examples of companies using it.

Some cable companies run it

Re: OpenVMS State of the Port to x86_64 [pdf]

#85
post #81
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Open source" historically meant just that: that you could look at the source, in contrast to machine code-only software. Only later did the term got confused with "free software" idea from Stalman and the "preferred form for making modifications" as he put it.

While "source listings as an aid to debugging" was definitely done, and still is (e.g. Microsoft Windows source is available to researchers), Wikipedia disagrees with the use of the term "open source" as ever meaning this. The term "open source" was first proposed by a group of people in the free software movement who were critical of the political agenda and moral philosophy implied in the term "free software" https…

Interesting. I'm probably confusing some things. I was under the impression that the term "open source" was older than both the free software movement and "open source" as defined by Eric Raymond et al. Not sure where I remember that from. Thanks for correcting me.

Re: OpenVMS State of the Port to x86_64 [pdf]

#87
post #54

These dudes are insane in a good way. Also, their earlier slide decks had more diagrams and even screenshots.

Thanks! I have some videos online of presentations I did at last year's OpenVMS Boot Camp. Some with diagrams :-) My apologies for the sometimes poor audio quality.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwebt4CzDP_hT2rHCm8Sw...

Re: OpenVMS State of the Port to x86_64 [pdf]

#88
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dont know about OCFS2 but Hadoop's file system HDFS and Ceph are hardly the stellar examples of rock solid and performant (I know its not an English word) distributed file systems. Google's mapreduce was so much more efficient in speed (4X and 4x last time I played with those tools) and resources primarily because of the bottlenecks imposed by HDFS design and implementation.

If performant isn't actually a word than a lot of people (myself included) have been doing it wrong. I can't think of a different variation on the word performance that would work

Some people are allergic to it, as for myself i cannot find a better substitute.

Re: OpenVMS State of the Port to x86_64 [pdf]

#89
post #86
post #82

Is there a VAX emulator/VM for x86 that would allow running VMS?

SIMH emulates a lot of things, including VAX. You used to be able to get a Hobbyist license for OpenVMS from HP. I'm not sure whether you still can. http://simh.trailing-edge.com/

Yes, you can still get hobbyist licenses from HP for OpenVMS: https://www.hpe.com/h41268/live/index_e.aspx?qid=24548

Note that some fields that are not marked mandatory should be treated as mandatory, esp. the one about the intended use.

Besides VAX emulators, there are also Alpha emulators you can run OpenVMS on; of interest to hobbyists are FreeAXP - free as in free beer, not open source, and Windows only - (www.freeaxp.com), and for those who want to be able to change it, the open source ES40 Emulator (www.es40.org) (disclaimer - I am the author of both of these emulators)

Re: OpenVMS State of the Port to x86_64 [pdf]

#90
post #59

In the x86_64 server space (which is, what, 90% of the server market today?), the choice of operating systems is basically between Windows and some variant of Unix (Solaris and its open source offspring, numerous GNU/Linux distros, and *BSD). Adding another system to the mix, especially one that has been in development for ~40 years, is an interesting proposition in itself. Add to that the reputation OpenVMS has for…

If the licensing fees on x86_64 aren't ridiculous, I will be tempted to make a serious evaluation of it at work.
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