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DECnet Isn't Dead

Posted by timothy on from the it's-living-with-disco dept.

Ronald Dumsfeld writes "The odds of folks under the age of 25 on Slashdot having heard of DECnet are pretty slim. This article over at Datamation gives some insight into people who've not given up on it. Poke around and find the documentation for the OSI-compliant version, or download the Linux version of the older DECnet IV and bask in the Security Through Obscurity."

4 of 375 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Actually... by w1r3sp33d · · Score: 4, Funny
    not dead, it just lurks in the dark, more like undead. I got called to troubleshoot a server farm with occasionally severely degraded network performance. Occasionally like every Tuesday --> Saturday at noon.

    Once I flipped my sniffer to look at more than just TCP/IP I found both IPX and DECnet running hard, doing full file system backups, copying gig's of old logs, etc. Their network "admins" valuable input was limited to: "sniffers can do that?"

    Anyway, not completely dead...

  2. Re:When I was your age... by oaklybonn · · Score: 4, Funny

    Jerry? Jerry Pournelle? How the hell are you man!

  3. Re:Of course it isn't dead! by jayhawk88 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Allow me to translate this for the rest of you (*Disclaimer: I'M JOKING!*):

    DECnet is often used these days for very mission critical applications. The firm I work for uses DECnet because it is the easiest and most reliable way for us to maintain our VAX and Alpha clusters.
    Our network guys are so old they played spades with Moses. We haven't upgraded a server in 15 years, and that's the way we like it!

    Indeed, it is by far the most superior form of networking out there for applications where the uptime must be literally 100%.
    I can get double time and a half anytime I want since I convinced the CEO that our SQL server needed to be up 24/7.

    We have had sales reps from various vendors come and suggest moving to a Windows 2003/PC setup (HAHA!) or towards a more UNIX/Linux-based setup.
    The entire city's sales force is drooling over the possibility of snagging our contract once our old kit finally goes into meltdown.

    But we will stick with our DECnet-based VAX and Alpha clusters because they are known to work, and they work pretty damn well!
    But I'm one of those power-tripping BOFH's who won't let a Blackberry into the building without my say-so.

    But that's because it is amongst the finest of DEC engineering. That's the sort of engineering you just don't find these days.
    My dad played gold with Ken Olsen.

  4. What are the odds? by mark-t · · Score: 4, Funny
    The odds of folks under the age of 25 on Slashdot having heard of DECnet are pretty slim
    Not as slim as the odds of folks under the age of 25 that _aren't_ on Slashdot having heard of DECnet.
    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'