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That can be helped:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
http://www.openvms.org/
https://www.vmssoftware.com/

Interesting that people classifies parent as "Troll" even though it's not far from the truth - better blame the messenger than addressing the problem.

Realize that the architecture that Windows today has is based on Windows NT, an architecture that was founded in the beginning of the 90's. This in turn is built upon OS/2, which originally came out in 1987.

There have been improvements to that architecture over the years, which have caused it to become more and more of a patchwork and resource hog in order to still maintain backwards compatibility while also keeping up with new functionality and improved security.

However a lot of the design in the platform is still causing problems that are hard to resolve without admin rights for the user. The current Windows versions also seems to only utilize two Privilege Levels in the hardware architecture, level 0 (kernel) and level 3 (user applications). This is also the case for Linux, so it's not better on that point.

However the age of an OS does not necessarily indicate how bad it is from a security point of view and the utilization of the capabilities of the hardware. E,g. OpenVMS utilizes four privilege modes (Kernel, Executive, Supervisor and User) and OpenVMS is now being ported to x86. This seems to be good news for nerds.

Format drive and install one of the following operating systems:

• BeOS
• Syllable
• AROS
• Plan 9
• Minix
• FreeDOS
• DR-DOS
• OpenVMS x86 port is coming!
• Visopsys
• SqueakNOS
• Haiku
• Kolibri
• ReactOS
• Tizen
• SkyOS
• MorphOS
• MenuetOS
• CP/M 86
• Multics, also see Multicians
• Erlang as an Operating System

There have been a large number of more or less obscure operating systems and not all have been ported to x86. Unfortunately the architecture has become a de facto standard even though it's not the best architecture or the most efficient but instead a patchwork of solutions to retain backwards compatibility. We have lost many interesting architectures over the years that would have deserved a better fate to the Intel bandwagon.

Last time I heard VMS had never been hacked. Is that still the case?

It was the best OS I ever worked with. It'd be nice if they open sourced it.

Umm Kevin Mitnick?

http://www.openvms.org/faqs/OpenVMS-Hack-FAQ.html

I don't believe you can get ahold of VMS any more

OpenVMS is available.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenVMS

http://www.openvms.org/

Pretty much...
http://www.openvms.org/stories.php?story=08/04/23/0699654

Rather this:
http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/85

Pretty much...
http://www.openvms.org/stories.php?story=08/04/23/0699654

Forgot to mention: 1) VMS is also outstanding. A VMS cluster apparently holds the record for "uptime"; over 10 years: http://www.openvms.org/stories.php?story=06/01/08/4531954 2) Did I mention Carly Fiorina sucks ass

A disaster tolerant system will have servers configured at multiple sites with real time data update. OpenVMS can do this with the remote sites being far enough away you need to fly there. How do I restore service? is the the wrong question, ask How do avoid downtime even if a site fails?

The Amsterdam Police IT group recently announced a 10 year uptime. OpenVMS.org has details on celebrating 10 years of uninterrupted service.

Do not forget the HP products either:
"Tandem" nonstop mainframes:
http://h20223.www2.hp.com/nonstopcomputing/cache/7 6385-0-0-0-121.aspx

OpenVMS:
http://secunia.com/product/6052/?task=statistics http://h71000.www7.hp.com/index.html?jumpid=/go/op envms
http://www.openvms.org/

There is also some Japanese products that rock. Windows and Unix do not have all the market yet. It is nice that we get more and more of these advanced features on Linux.

you can use OpenOffice and Firebird as an MSAccess replacement

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=openoffice+ firebird

Firebird also can replace mssql server, sql express , sql everywhere

good news it works on macos, linux, windows ,*bsd , solaris x86, cell cpu (recent linux powerpc port completed)

what we are missing is an vms port for openoffice ;)
any volunteers ?

http://www.openvms.org/stories.php?story=06/10/19/ 9519833

Solaris or Tru64 or VMS(!) for anything flight- or vehicle-related

If security or availability is a must, go VMS. The aforementioned link will astonish you.

Newsflash - Linux is *not* "impenetrable". If you want a really secure OS, try OpenVMS or my favourite, OpenBSD.

You didn't auto-link the URL (hint:instructions below the Post Comment window) And its Foresight is at 0.9 release stage, not yet 1.0.
There are PPC Linuxes you could've recommended, but you didn't have the Foresight!

If you really want security, try http://openbsd.org/ for powermacs:
http://openbsd.secsup.org/3.7/macppc/ or for serious stability and security http://openvms.org/
Clam Anti-Virus is available for Mac OSX
http://www.markallan.co.uk/clamXav/

Considering that the M$ environment is under constant pressure from various threats I would like to call the selection of that environment risky, and almost stupid. By selecting other environments you would be running the risk of being more dependent on a few persons with that particular competence. On the other hand the number of persons competent enough to cause trouble will also decrease significantly.

If I was involved I would have selected OpenVMS , now owned by HP as operating system for the servers running either MySQL or Oracle as a database and developing the software in Ada or (horrendous thought) Pascal or maybe Java.

---
OpenVMS - The OS with longer uptimes than Microsoft support policies

Maybe that had a bad experience with the other DCL

Well done, you've just described VMS' native filesystem.

The problem isn't "keeping track of lots of files as they get updated and their versions change". If it was, CVS would be the perfect solution.

The problem is "ensuring my changes don't break something you've just added", "integrating this with a bug management system so we know who committed what in order to fix what bugs", "making it easy for me to work on a long-term pet project, while not being obliged to commit this project to the main source tree in order to ensure it doesn't get broken by other people's changes over the course of time" and several others.

AFAIK, there is no free (as in speech and/or beer) solution which handles all of the above in a particularly neat manner.

You mean like OpenVMS? If you really cared, you would know it's already out there.

Here's the "give'em what they want in action:

"I want a car with tail fins!"

http://www.openvms.org/ Vintage design, looks a bit strange, but still classy in its own way.

"No I want a car with a bright pink paint job!"

http://www.linspire.com/ It's a real Linux and seems to do the job, but it may be a bit soft compared to the trad distros. Looks a little like one of those "strange" OSs

"I want a car that flies through the air, and swims underwater!"

http://www.knoppix.com/ Frisbeed it at the cat. Dunked it in the sink. Dropped it into the CD drive and it still booted into Debian. Nice.

"Foo to the others. I just want a basic car that goes from point A to Point B!"

http://www.goosee.com/puppy/ This is one quick little puppy. Not much to it, but it goes like a train.

"Nuts to the above. I want a car with a hot tub, and a wet bar, and plenty of space for all the women I'm going to get by driving this pimpmobile!".

http://www1.mandrivalinux.com/en-us/ This sucker's big and fluffy. Has everything and the kitchen sink, and it'll look after you while you install it.

http://www.openvms.org/

A new operating system every year but software that can't be ported is the still the main problem. Why don't you people realize this. It's the software that is the problem . The software vendors are targeting only a few distributions. Windows .

Face it, you get little in return for every new version of Windows you buy. Win2K->WinXP was just a hideous facelift.

I'm no MS fanboy, but repeating misinformation won't get you anywhere. Besides, someone who is actually in IT will tell you that most of the OS money is spent on server licenses and CALs, and the difference between 2000 Server and 2003 Server is even bigger than that between the desktop versions. A fancy UI doesn't get you far on a server (and it's turned off by default in 2003). Anti-MS zealots keep focusing on the desktop Windows, which tells me that most of them are probably working in retail during the day and playing "'blog-master" at night.

There already is one. OpenVMS

I really enjoyed using OpenVMS and although I no longer use it on a daily basis I do still have an account on a friend's system that I log into from time to time. That interview reminded me of how wonderfully supportive the OpenVMS community is, even if you don't like OpenVMS you have to love the spirit, dedication and willingness to help of these guys. I especially remember the USENET posts by the recently departed John Wisniewski. Here is one of his posts in which he names the top "F" reasons OpenVMS is not going to die.

TOP "F" REASONS OPENVMS ISN'T GOING TO DIE
(Y2K LATE EDITION VERSION)

F)Hey, Free Hobbyist Licenses available on the NET! Just like those guys who don't make any money off their OSes...

E)If OpenVMS was a separate company it would be in the fortune list at 384

D)Xwindows, SAMBA, Apache, Java, COM and all that Open Systems SW On a platform that's always available...

C)DIICOE -- Not just for Unix systems anymore -- Compaq signed a 15 year agreement with the US Government for continuing OpenVMS support and infusion with Open System and Open Source APIs and unlike POSIX, there real applications written to these standards!

B)Shared Everything Clusters with live, redundant datacenters over 540 miles apart... (No Hot Standby here;-)

A)3.9 Billion in OpenVMS Sales World Wide last year
-- One of Compaq's most profitable business units

9)One Word: Wildfire, eh, GS series, eh, Alpha, eh Galaxy, Eh OpenVMS

8)Wanna buy a lottery ticket?

7)200 Million spent on R&D last year
-- Anyone want to work in VMS engineering?
We got openings and I get a bonus to recruit:-)

6)Healthcare, and Finance, and Telecom! Oh MY!

5)Used VAXen and Alphas are going on E-bay for more than you can get them through brokers!

4)Kevin Mitnick just testified before congress he hasn't been able to get into VMS since version 4 when he stole version 5 with a 1200 baud modem...

3)You want to be able to CHARGE people for their cellphone time?

2)VAX can't die until after I beat the Balrog in Moria 4.81.

1)VMS is Windows 2000 ready even if no-one has deployed the new Windows 2000 security domains yet!

De John Wisniewski - a memorial

The game began at 10 a.m. on Friday. The VMS machine on the Green team was configured with Apache web server. As we are aware, VMS is an extremely secure operating system. While many of the other boxes in the room, mostly Unix, linux, and forms of windows, and even a Macintosh, were compromised and subsequently attended to by their masters, the VMS system remained intact. Here is where a real security issue comes into play.

We were very confident of the VMS box, and a lot of interest was generated by it. In the spirit of spreading the good word and educating the people about VMS, we ended up answering a lot of questions about VMS, and showing how the machine automagically added user accounts, and demonstrated the various terminal games and web pages which had been created. We were also aware that, in this crowd of 5000+ hackers, someone might be able to weasel their way into the machine if any security measures were taken lightly.

As events would have it, we had an issue, which we did not understand, with the operation of the serial port used as the operators' console. At 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning the system manager decided to telnet to the box in order to do some routine checks. Using Telnet in an environment with 5000 hackers on your network is an insecure method of administering a computer system. A lot of people were fascinated by the VMS system, and had asked many questions about it, shoulder-surfing the console operator, who of course answered their questions in this friendly game of an environment.

One of the hackers who had been showing a lot of interest in the VMS box happened to be sniffing packets from the system manager's PC. He discovered the password to the account, a simple procedure any 13 year old kid can pull off with ease after a little social engineering. The hacker logged in, and placed a couple text files (his mark for points) in the manager's user directory, and then notified the system manager in order to claim the points. There were no points for hacking the machine because the files were placed in a user directory instead of the `root' VMS directory. He was awarded 10 points for social engineering.

Was this an instance of VMS being hacked? No, it was just a circumstance where a privileged login session was passed in plaintext over a network with 5000 mechanics, social engineers, and hackers on it. By using a telnet session on an open network, the system managers' login information was freely made available to any who cared to record it. Giving away your login info in this way to a hacker who subsequently uses it does not constitute being hacked, it constitutes an error in security procedure. The thought of improved security, such as some level of encryption for telnet on VMS, immediately comes to mind. Be very afraid.

The Alpha was disconnected from the haxor network, the serial port issue (our fault alone) was fixed, and the network was reconnected. The incident did not repeat, nor did any hack whatsoever of the VMS system take place during the event. The hackers bombarded the box with telnets and ftp attempts to every bizarre port number imaginable, obscure ports in the 40,000 range and more. The word of the early-morning incident had spread, and those seeking glory and a reputation besieged the box.

Another kind of social engineering, involving a clever lie intended to trap those who would think it cool to hack the NOC was presented in this way: People came by, with an IP address, saying, "here is the IP address for the NOC, have fun". It was really an outside IP address, and this was a ruse to make those who listened loose points for attacking sites outside the defcon network. Hacking outside the CTF network was forbidden.

As the game progressed, the goons announced that there were not enough hackers (huh? The tables were *full* of people). To make it more enticing, the point award for placing your mark in the root directory of a server

• Is OpenVMS running native on IA-64
• Is it translated or compiled
• What is performance on IA-64
• Is OpenVMS Alive and Well.

MACRO-32 is the macro assembler language originally used on the VAX. When ALPHA was the new processor, a MACRO-32 compiler was written to translate MACRO-32 code directly to ALPHA. As everybody can plainly see, this approach was quite succcessful. A similar approach has been taken with IA-64, with a MACRO-32 compiler generating native IA-64 code.

Similarly, image translation was used ALPHA to allow VAX applications to run efficiently without the need to recompile the sources. This approach has been used successfully since ALPHA (indeed, the MONITOR utility was translated from a VAX-compiled set of sources until recently, some other programs are still binary translated). The same approach is being made available with IA-64, and it works.

Performance is a complex issue, no single number adequately expresses the complexities of the situation, and certainly your mileage will vary. I do not have the time to write a treatise on the subject, but will say that it dramatically depends on which compilers you use, which optimizations are enabled, and what your application does. Some applications will benefit immediately, and some may not.

I recently attended the OpenVMS track of the HP - Intel Developer forum, and OpenVMS 8.2 is very much ready for real use on both ALPHA and IA-64 (see my account at http://www.openvms.org/)

- Bob Gezelter (http://www.rlgsc.com/)

Really? Wow.. they must be porting DCL to Windows, then, because that's the most usable shell of which I know.

Why, it's inside of every Storageworks that DEc, um, Compaq, um... I mean HP sells... They still call the controller an HSC-XXX (That's Hot Shit Controller, for you non-DECies) OpenVMS Duh!

Use VMS!

This is the first I've heard of this. Do you have any links to further info?

Info here.

First boot was on Jan. 31. An Alpha/IA64 cluster was running by May. Early versions of OpenVMS v8 for IA64 systems have been released to select ISVs...