[Vms.sig-hu] More OpenVMS in the press - OK for external distribution (fwd)

[Fodor Zsuzsa]

---------- Továbbított levél ----------
Dátum: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 16:09:33 -0500
Feladó: Skonetski, Susan <susan.skonetski at hp.com>
Címzett: Skonetski, Susan <susan.skonetski at hp.com>
Tárgy: More OpenVMS in the press - OK for external distribution


http://www.hp-interex.org/site/cms/newsarticleview.asp?article=1976
Interrex article on the Galaxy announcement

ZDNet interviews Andrew Tridgell the founder and lead of the Samba
project. It gives an interesting background of how Samba came to be.
Andrew got his hands on DEC's Pathworks in the early 90s, and 
wanted to
be able to access files off his Sun server, besides for Ultrix and VMS
servers.  So he reverse engineered Pathworks by examining the bits
flowing back and forth on the network.  This free "Pathworks for Sun"
later was renamed Samba and ported
to a number of other platforms, most prominently Linux.

Details at:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/os/story/0,2000048630,20280072,
00.htm



Article in Automatiseringsgids 24oct2003, translated from Dutch

Door to OpenVMS still hasn't been closed

On Monday June, 25, 2001 Compaq officially announced the End Of Life
(EOL) of the Alpha-processor.
And so, according to friend and especially foe, the end of operating
systems like OpenVMS will be very near.
"Well, just forget about that", analyst Terry Shannon says. "Whether 
we
like it or not, we have to deal for many years to come with this
operating system with it's roots in the VAX-world of the old Digital
Equipment."

Richard Keijzer

Long time ago the Alpha-processor was the parade-horse of Digital
Equipment.
The chip was brought to market in 1992 as a super scalar Risc-
processor,
and already equipped with a 64-bits architecture years before Intel 
came
with such an idea.
Shannon: "In that time a revolutionary design, that was just very
suitable to build fast large servers. The chip-architects had big plans
and thought to stay ahead of Intel's products by far. Based on
competitive Specmark-figures aggressive slides were made that were 
shown
on each possible occasion. The Merced of Intel, that was the subject,
would hit the market only in a couple of years, and pale by the side of
the power of the Alpha."

Not standing  still
The developers at Digital were right about Merced, but of course there
was no stand still at Intel.
The chips-manufacturer worked together with HP on a next-generation
chip.
In the mean time Digital was taken over by Compaq, about the same 
time
that Tandem was bought by Compaq.
By acquiring Tandem and Digital Compaq got a number of quite different
techniques, as well in the hardware as well in the software-space.
Wherever possible the offerings were aligned, with amongst others the
result that further development on the Alpha-chip was canceled.
All developments for version EV8 were stopped.
Shannon: "Stopping developments is one thing, to completely disappear
from the market is a complete other issue. 
In the past there were thoughts that the VAX-series of Digital would
suffer the same fate, but there are still about 200,000 VAXes in use and
I can assure to entire satisfaction of the users."
It is difficult to make an estimate for the number in use in our
country. According to the rule of thumb that our land is good for 2 % of
the world economy, a number of 4,000 would be realistic. Large 
companies
like Shell and Corus (the former Hoogovens - steel industry) use the
systems still to entire satisfaction.
The operating system of the VAX was VMS, a piece of software that
absolutely could be characterized as "robust". 
Computers just running for more than five years without the need of
human intervention were more the rule than exception.
VMS was rebuilt into a modern version, OpenVMS.
With this software applications could be migrated from the proprietary
VAX-hardware to systems based on the Alpha-processor.
"A migration that in fact was really complex", says Andrew Goldstein,
one of the designers of OpenVMS.
Goldstein is also one of the around 200 OpenVMS Ambassadors, a 
group of
people that know almost everything about the operating system.
Shannon: "If you ask a question and none of the ambassadors knows 
the
answer, you're quite sure that there is no such answer."

Migration
Goldstein: "Ahead of us is a second migration with VMS, from Alpha to
Itanium. A migration that compared with the last one is much simpler.
The Alpha and the Itanium are both modern processor chips, and it is
reasonably doable to transfer from one platform to the other." 
Not only is the migration relative simple, it also gives software
developers a  more solid basis. "Look at it this way, if you develop
software for a system what is sold not too much, it's a hard time. With
a limited number of sold installations one has to earn back the
development costs. And that is hard. Now with the move to Itanium,
everything looks more bright. We come into an environment where we 
will
sell more systems. Compare it with a move from Rolls Royce to 
Mercedes."
Goldstein says.
With the migration from VAX to Alpha a software-utility called Vest was
developed.
With Vest it was possible to use VAX binary code on an Alpha processor.
Goldstein: "By doing so, it was possible to transfer an application,
without the need for the sources" Also for the next migration from Alpha
to Itanium there will be such a binary code translator. It is really
meant for exceptions, because in most cases the source code will be
available, and then one can just recompile. A recompiled program will
work more efficient than a binary translated program. Anyway the 
binary
translator is available, and that is the most important thing."

Loyal users

Digital, just like each other computer manufacturer, would like to have
seen that users would just migrate to a new model computer.
 The user population of the VAX-series was over and over pointed out 
the
many advantages of a move to the Alpha systems.
And now when also the Alpha comes to an end, a migration to a system
with Itanium-processors is advised.
And will the users do that? "No", says analyst Terry 
Shannon. "Generally
they are happy with what they have and don't even consider a 
migration.
Besides, don't forget that many VAXes are in use with the US 
Government.
If they use a system, it's exceptional that they go for a change. The
same applies to the Alpha-systems. These systems also have very loyal
users and it will take quite some time before they have decided that an
Itanium-server might be a good alternative for their present hardware."
"VAX-users are very loyal", software-guru Andy Goldstein says.
He works long enough for Digital, Compaq, and now HP to know this old
users-population. "There are", says Goldstein, "still about 200,000
VAXes in use."
And we are busy filling up our stock with spare parts by buying used
systems worldwide.
By doing so, we are confident that we can repair whatever is needed.
Luckily we are not at the point yet where users have to go to
collectors-tradeshows to buy certain parts. A VAX might be old, but it's
no antique car!"
The manufacturer will do whatever is possible to migrate users to a new
platform, but at the end it's the user who decides to do so.
Shannon: "When a user is happy with a certain kind of hardware, it 
would
be stupid to go for a new system early. In spite of all the
encouragements of the supplier."
By the way not only the supplier itself is active in this area, also the
competition is trying to persuade the users.
Companies like IBM and Sun see the users of a server made by
Digital/Compaq/HP as an easy target.
With all kinds of programs they try to persuade the users to get rid of
their old systems and buy a server from another company.
"The pressure on our users is huge", Goldstein says. "However our
experience is that when someone has worked with VMS, it's not likely
that he will go for some version of Unix, Linux, or whatever these OSes
are called. We know users that have made such a migration, but came 
back
to us after a couple of months, an experience richer.
No, in this case we can not mention names, let's call it a reasonably
huge financial institution."
To counterbalance the attractive offers of the competition the own
product is modernized wherever possible and equipped with new 
functions.
"Sometimes one just misses certain functions, like burning a cd. In the
past I had to export my data to a pc, to burn a cd on that platform.
Annoying, because that takes extra time. We solved that problem, by
supplying a driver for a cd-burner in OpenVMS", Goldstein says.
Also in the area of applications from time to time a VMS user will look
out of the corner of his eyes at pc's.
Goldstein: "Take as an example  packages like Microsoft Office." It's
sometimes hard to exchange data with that environment, keeping the 
same
functionality. Or, you can just wait; we work hard on porting OpenOffice
to OpenVMS. If that's achieved, users of VMS have the same 
functionality
as their collegues using pc's."
It will take some time before the "port" of Open Office, the
open-source-alternative for the applicationsuite of Microsoft, will be
finished. The development-team for this job encounters all kind of
programmatic challenges.
Certain versions of OpenVMS miss some tooling that's essential for
"porting" large applications. On their website the team asks for
volunteers, but at the same moment they warn people with wife and kid
(s)
to consider what they are up to. "Otherwise you might be 'the guy that
comes along on Sunday to cut the meat', because your family won't see
you too often"; this is the stimulating quotation of the porting-people.