there have been some articles regarding vms and its uptime being in years, and its security being very good.

how would one compare it to *nix , i know openvms uses POSIX to comply with *nix?
it uses x-windows for server-user gui.
threre is more than user and root, although *nix has groups that can be used in a simlar way.

Surely *nix servers have been up for years too without rebooting.

vms was coded in Bliss, opposed to C for *nix, i would appreaciate the diffrences.

the hackers convention a few years back is always used as vms starting point regarding security, apparently the hackers did not know the system before there tried hacking it, which does not conclude a fair trial, also a lot os daemons were not on, in regarding the *nix system, which they had used and knew security vunerabilities.

Hi I'm also very interested in OpenVMS. I have been trying very hard, with no success, to get a hobbyist license. I have an alpha that I would like to put it on. If you email the fellow on this page he will promptly (and very politely I might add) get you a shell account on a large vax machine in his basement.

The fact that admins for OpenVMS feel comfortable giving out shell accounts gives me a very warm fuzzy feeling about OpenVMS.

If you figure out how to get the HP hobbyist license please post back.


Regards,

dan

http://www.openvmshobbyist.com/

that page seems to have all the information on getting a hobbyist license
There are 5 steps to contain the license

Ya I went to that site and it was getting caught on step 3-- for a couple of weeks. It's weird I check every day and today-- I can get past step 3. I'm very excited and cannot wait to get home. It will probably be a few weeks before I will be able to get something up and running. My alpha is a basket case.

I will try to remember to post back when I do get it up and running.





dan

you must of paid a packet for the dec alpha, good news you got past step 3.

on a x86 box , it may be possible to emulate a dec alpha using simics, bochs, vmware or any other cpu emulator and install vms that way, it would proberly run very slowly , being the main disadvantage to native architecture.
It was just a thought i had.

VMS is an interesting operating system. DCL syntax is closer to DOS than anything UNIX. Check out the deathrow OpenVMS cluster:

http://deathrow.vistech.net/

There is a comparison here OpenVMS vs. UNIX" (antagonists or sisters?)

For anyone interested in VMS whom doesn't have a alpha or uVAX computer laying around there is FreeVMS.

I have run VMS VIA emulator in Linux.
For a time there was a commercial company that offered a minimal version of their emulator but no longer do so because of software piracy concerns. The open source SIMH runs VMS great. In both cases the VAX version, not the Alpha.
To get a hobbyist license I had to apply for the free basic membership with Encompass then using that membership number apply for the hobbyist license.
comp.os.vms is a good source of VMS info.
If I had a chance to aquire a VAX really cheap I would.

I would love to run a webserver on vax/alpha vms just to confuse script kiddies.