I know this is off-topic (so sue me) but other operating systems are doing similar things to allow Unix applications to run on them.
Obviously, there's FINK for Mac OS X (but that's not a stretch because of OSX's underpinnings)
But probably the more interesting one is GNV. gnv.sourceforge.net
It stands for GNU's NOT VMS. It's a Bash shell and environment for porting Unix/Linux apps to VMS. It's doing quite well for those folks that have a pre-existing VMS environment and who need an open-sourced utility to do something that's hard to find for VMS.
This is the obligatory "VMS had this in the 1980's" replies.
GFS looks good and I look forward to trying it. It's too bad that someone hasn't written a global lock manager that GFS and other apps could use. I hate to see duplication of effort.
Do you really think that Apple will let G5's melt down? They've been around the block enough to know that it would be stupid to not have failsafe protection of an expensive-to-replace part.
So what if the OS crashes. Then the CPU won't be tasked, will it? I have little doubt that the BIOS on the Mac has some "fail-safe" settings that take over when the OS isn't running.
Because you're comfortable with supporting RedHat installations and don't have the time to learn a new quirk?
Alot of people in Slashdot think everyone has the time to learn a new way of doing something just because it's cool. There's lots of people who are way over worked and it's just enough to keep things up and running.
Yea, I have to admit I'm enjoying a wee bit of schadenfreud with Sun selling out to Microsoft and re-examining their CPU choices.
I worked at DEC. Scott took great pleasure in using DEC's situation to his advantage. DEC got in bed with MS, Scott jumped up and down. DEC moved to Alpha, Schott jumped up and down. DEC/CPQ/HP cancelled Alpha, Scott jumped up and down.
I don't think Scott is jumping right now.
I feel bad for the Sun employees however. Very bad.
Easier said than done. My wife is a graphic designer. Her Mac is her life. Everything has to just work. To her, a computer is like a good wrench to a mechanic. It's a tool. Nothing more.
Also, for her to upgrade would mean all new apps and they are not cheap. We're talking around $3000US to update everything. She's got to get ALOT of work to justify that expenditure.
That said, it would be nice to put a 1.7 version of Mozilla on her OS9 box so she can dump Internet Exploder.
You'd have to fly to Boston. There's no international flights in and out of Manchester (a.k.a. Manchvega$). Unless you consider flights to Canada "international".
There were rumours flying in the past that code from DEC's VMS OS made its way into NT. The rumour was that it happened and DEC settled out of court with Microsoft.
It'll be interesting to see if anyone actually looks. (You can get not all, but alot of the VMS source code on microfiche and other media)
Yea, I used to work there. No, I have no first hand knowledge. Just rumours. Take them for what they are.
I'd love to see something like this. Then I could create "GrampyLinux" for my stepDad. He lives in Ireland and keeping the files on my server would mean I'd be able to modify/fix things and he'd pick them up on the next connection.
Ideally, the thing to do would be to rsync the stuff on the USB key with a remote directory automatically. That probably wouldn't be too hard to do.
I worked at DEC (Digital Equipment Corp for the kids in the audience) for 18 years, then API (Alpha Processor Inc/API NetWorks) for 2.5 years.
In all the interviews since I left DEC, the "country club" stuff comes up. I'll be the first to admit, DEC was a country club, but it was also a GREAT place to work with lots of opportunity.
Unfortunately, there's alot of people out there with a negative view of DEC and the people that worked there. One guy said "You don't have small company experience". Huh? I was #40 at an eventually 90 person company. I know small companies. They are just as fucked up as big companies.
Yea, working at DEC is a stigma. Oh well. It was a great run.
I'm now an unemployed marketing/techie who's a stay at home Dad.
I think Intel has positioned the Itanic as an Alpha/Sparc replacement and never really meant for it to go into things like laptops. AMD on the other hand sees AMD64 as a complete replacement of its major product line.
It'll be interesting to see how VMS does on Itanic. My fear is that HP will keep VMS in the "cash cow" position however. Too bad. It's still the worlds best OS. (I was the system manager for the VMS Development group about 10+ years ago)
Slashdot Mirror
And the EV6 bus stops at the Athlon 32-bit CPU's. After that, it's HyperTransport and built-in memory controllers.
Not unlike Alpha EV8.
Around 1986 I was sitting in on a meeting where an application that was in development was being discussed.
One of the product managers (it was DEC, there was always more than one product manager) said "We really want to idiot-proof the interface!"
I raised my hand and said "That's great, but there's a better idiot born every minute. I know, I work in system management"
I'll probably lose karma for this, but WGAF.
You can even get Bash for (Open)VMS..
http://gnv.sourgeforge.net
I know this is off-topic (so sue me) but other operating systems are doing similar things to allow Unix applications to run on them.
Obviously, there's FINK for Mac OS X (but that's not a stretch because of OSX's underpinnings)
But probably the more interesting one is GNV. gnv.sourceforge.net
It stands for GNU's NOT VMS. It's a Bash shell and environment for porting Unix/Linux apps to VMS. It's doing quite well for those folks that have a pre-existing VMS environment and who need an open-sourced utility to do something that's hard to find for VMS.
I think that only works with Firefox.
(Why do developers only put out Firefox extensions?)
That's why I said "closER". :) :) I know a little something about VMS (see profile) and Linux does have a ways to go.
Thanks for the pointers on OpenDLM and SSI Alan.
This is the obligatory "VMS had this in the 1980's" replies.
GFS looks good and I look forward to trying it. It's too bad that someone hasn't written a global lock manager that GFS and other apps could use. I hate to see duplication of effort.
I like to call those characters "Lt. Expendable"
Which makes me wonder why so much effort is being put into confusing potential users.
I love Mozilla. I switch alot of people to Mozilla. Why not put alot of the nice look and feel of Firefox and Thunderchicken into the Mozilla suite?
Confuse less of your "customers" and satisfy the rest.
Do you really think that Apple will let G5's melt down? They've been around the block enough to know that it would be stupid to not have failsafe protection of an expensive-to-replace part.
So what if the OS crashes. Then the CPU won't be tasked, will it? I have little doubt that the BIOS on the Mac has some "fail-safe" settings that take over when the OS isn't running.
Because you're comfortable with supporting RedHat installations and don't have the time to learn a new quirk?
Alot of people in Slashdot think everyone has the time to learn a new way of doing something just because it's cool. There's lots of people who are way over worked and it's just enough to keep things up and running.
Yea, I have to admit I'm enjoying a wee bit of schadenfreud with Sun selling out to Microsoft and re-examining their CPU choices.
I worked at DEC. Scott took great pleasure in using DEC's situation to his advantage. DEC got in bed with MS, Scott jumped up and down. DEC moved to Alpha, Schott jumped up and down. DEC/CPQ/HP cancelled Alpha, Scott jumped up and down.
I don't think Scott is jumping right now.
I feel bad for the Sun employees however. Very bad.
Easier said than done. My wife is a graphic designer. Her Mac is her life. Everything has to just work. To her, a computer is like a good wrench to a mechanic. It's a tool. Nothing more.
Also, for her to upgrade would mean all new apps and they are not cheap. We're talking around $3000US to update everything. She's got to get ALOT of work to justify that expenditure.
That said, it would be nice to put a 1.7 version of Mozilla on her OS9 box so she can dump Internet Exploder.
You'd have to fly to Boston. There's no international flights in and out of Manchester (a.k.a. Manchvega$). Unless you consider flights to Canada "international".
It runs x86 32-bit applications at full-speed without a recompile. Nobody want's to recompile and support another platform.
Oh come on, the x86 was not designed to do much more than run VisiCalc!
There were rumours flying in the past that code from DEC's VMS OS made its way into NT. The rumour was that it happened and DEC settled out of court with Microsoft.
It'll be interesting to see if anyone actually looks. (You can get not all, but alot of the VMS source code on microfiche and other media)
Yea, I used to work there. No, I have no first hand knowledge. Just rumours. Take them for what they are.
I'm seeing pathetic downloads. 1-16kB/s My uploads are moving along at 36kB/s.
A torrent I downloaded the other night was flying at over a meg/sec.
It was NT-only. It was called FX!32. Google that and you'll find out more info than can be explained here.
Yup, 64bit technology WAS a huge step in *1992*. Been there, done that. It was called Alpha.
AMD64 will succeed because it runs 32bit x86 apps full speed.
Drag and drop it into the Address Book?
I'd love to see something like this. Then I could create "GrampyLinux" for my stepDad. He lives in Ireland and keeping the files on my server would mean I'd be able to modify/fix things and he'd pick them up on the next connection.
Ideally, the thing to do would be to rsync the stuff on the USB key with a remote directory automatically. That probably wouldn't be too hard to do.
I worked at DEC (Digital Equipment Corp for the kids in the audience) for 18 years, then API (Alpha Processor Inc/API NetWorks) for 2.5 years.
In all the interviews since I left DEC, the "country club" stuff comes up. I'll be the first to admit, DEC was a country club, but it was also a GREAT place to work with lots of opportunity.
Unfortunately, there's alot of people out there with a negative view of DEC and the people that worked there. One guy said "You don't have small company experience". Huh? I was #40 at an eventually 90 person company. I know small companies. They are just as fucked up as big companies.
Yea, working at DEC is a stigma. Oh well. It was a great run.
I'm now an unemployed marketing/techie who's a stay at home Dad.
I think Intel has positioned the Itanic as an Alpha/Sparc replacement and never really meant for it to go into things like laptops. AMD on the other hand sees AMD64 as a complete replacement of its major product line.
It'll be interesting to see how VMS does on Itanic. My fear is that HP will keep VMS in the "cash cow" position however. Too bad. It's still the worlds best OS. (I was the system manager for the VMS Development group about 10+ years ago)