Re: Is pmax alive?

On 3 April 2016 at 07:27, Aaron J. Grier <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Sat, Mar 05, 2016 at 07:32:51PM +0100, Felix Deichmann wrote:
> > is pmax still alive and a working port (it is Tier II at least, but is
> > that correct)? I cannot see real activity on the mailing list for
> > months and years, and last posts even imply that the port could be
> > broken on some machines or even altogether.
>
> I gave away my 5000/240 to another NetBSD user years ago.  5000/200 went
> to a local recycler along with some 3100s and 2100s.  (some may have
> been saved.)
>
> I still have a 2100 I can't quite bring myself to get rid of.  it takes
> almost four days to build the 1.4.3A world (from 1.4.3A), and I haven't
> quite found the necessary time to iron out the nuances to build 1.5.x
> world yet.
>
> running NetBSD-7 on a 2100 would be amusing, although I suspect not
> practical.  the introduction of ssh and crypto (in 1.5.x) seems to be
> the nail in the coffin for some of these older systems.
>

In general I think pmax suffers from being the DEC NetBSD 'middle child'.
Not as fast and (still just about :) useful as Alpha, not as interesting as
VAX.

Having said that I have a couple of DECsystem 3100 and a DECstation 5000,
and would love to have time to run them :)