Re: vms

On Sun, Apr 23, 2006 at 06:05:07PM -0700, Hugh Graham wrote:
> DEC used to provide free hobbyist licenses and make media available
> for a small fee. Compaq grudgingly sustained the program. HP has
> renamed DECUS to ENCOMPASS, but in theory it still exists. You may
> have a chore getting vax media out of them though.

I just got an OpenVMS CD a couple of weeks ago, so it isn't too hard.  
You can make a copy of a friend's media if you like, as long as you have 
registerd with ENCOMPASS to get a hobbyist license.  I wanted an 
original CD because some of the older CDROM drives are fussy about 
reading burned media, and the purchased CDs are pressed.

I haven't gotten around to getting a fully-working installation of 
OpenVMS running, though (I have three VAXen in various states of 
repair), but I definitely intend to do so.  In the meantime, because I 
actually know *nix, I put OpenBSD on my VAXStation 4000/60.  It's 
working pretty well, but I sure with the version of OpenBSD I installed 
had an irssi compiled for it.  (I can't compile it from source and I 
don't know where to begin.)

OpenVMS will work better with the small amounts of memory that most 
VAXen have, and it is pretty cool, but it is easier to get a working, 
productive system out of a BSD, I suspect.

Jim