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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."

5 of 375 comments (clear)

  1. TCP/IP license fees? by ZiZ · · Score: 4, Interesting
    From TFA:

    IP, though, is the industry standard protocol. These days, everybody knows how to use TCP/IP. That means anyone also deploying DECnet has to license both protocols. The good news is that the DECnet fees are a bit less than those for TCP/IP.

    Did I miss something? So far as I know, the specifications for TCP, IP, and (most) assorted support protocols are openly avaliable, free of charge to implement, screw up, use and abuse. Is this suggesting DECnet fees involve someone paying you to use it? If that's the case, sign me up!

    --
    This flies in the face of science.
  2. Of course it isn't dead! by CyricZ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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. Indeed, it is by far the most superior form of networking out there for applications where the uptime must be literally 100%.

    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. 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 that's because it is amongst the finest of DEC engineering. That's the sort of engineering you just don't find these days.

    --
    Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
    1. Re:Of course it isn't dead! by kerrle · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Oil Refineries.

      The Valero refinery down here uses VAX machines to monitor the gauges on the equipment all over the plant.

      Think about it - refineries don't have "downtime"...pretty much ever. Even when they're doing work on one part of the plant, the rest keeps going.

      And they can't miss data - for both safety and environmental reasons.

  3. Double Wow! by richieb · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I remember installing DECnet on a couple of PDP-11/70s. Back in the Jurassic era of computing. And then writing some networking code in Pascal....

    --
    ...richie - It is a good day to code.
  4. Re:Wow by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I am 25, and were it not for random chance, I wouldn't know anything about DECnet. Until the the MicroVAX 3500 at work lost its boot drive in a power outage - 1.5 months ago - we actively used DECnet; The VAX primarily served software images to DECservers, which our old HP-UX server did most of the communication. I still have the hulking pair of RA81 behind me. We had several DECwriter III (LA120) paper-feed terminals that we used as wide-carriage impact printers for shipping documents and labels, and two large Line Matrix greenbar printers.

    During the transition and move (all obtained from a previous company) several pieces stopped working. As I understand it, they'd been robbing pieces right and left to keep what was working still working. I poured through manuals as old as I am, and dug up default passwords. Thankfully, they weren't exactly security-conscious.

    Anyone want a MicroVAX? You pay shipping. :)

    --
    That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit