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VAX Users See the Writing on the Wall

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the wait-they-just-noticed-that-now? dept.

Snot Locker writes "An informative piece at ComputerWorld talks about how VAX users are anticipating the costly migration to more modern systems. Several noteworthy tidbits, including hints of the port of OpenVMS to Itanium and the tale of VAX systems that have not had a reboot in 6 years!"

2 of 463 comments (clear)

  1. Don't trash them if you don't have to. by grub · · Score: 5, Informative


    If any VAXs admins are reading this and are preparing to send their machines to the landfill, why not check to see if your hardware is on OpenBSD's wanted hardware list? They actively maintain a native VAX port (and it's damn good geek karma!)

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  2. VAX emulators by emil · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article mentions SRI's Charon VAX. This is very expensive software that requires a USB dongle for licensing.

    However, you can also run VAX VMS on a free i386 VAX emulator called SIMH. I don't seem to be able to get very good ethernet performance with SIMH. However, you can run NetBSD/VAX on it out of the box, and OpenBSD will run with a kernel patch. SIMH also has a PDP-11 emulator and includes images of the original UNIX V7 from AT&T (courtesy of SCaldera). SIMH is an interesting way to run both ancient and modern UNIXen without reformatting your PC.

    You can also get free VMS licenses for SIMH/VAX. They must be renewed yearly.

    Alpha VMS also supported a VAX binary emulator called VEST, which is mentioned in another post here. Support for VEST is dying, however (modern RDB releases have dropped it). The Charon VAX emulator also runs on Alpha VMS.