Reply to: The thing i miss most about VAX VMS....

[darmstadt]

In my Jobserve mail today there was actually a job for VMS (along for one with ICL VME)

[MPwannadecentincome]

VT520 - those gave you copy and paste between sessions. Also limited scrollback and an alarm facility for lunch break and knock-off time.

I remember the VT100 had to have a memory upgrade installed so you could get 132 column displays.

[Sysman]

Yes, there was actually no such restriction. I made that up in response to Sysman's puzzling dilemma.

Don't worry, I realised you were pulling my leg.

The dilemma was that I didn't have enough mainframe experience to get the same job/pay level elsewhere, but I needed to get out of the company I was at. The Swindon bit was only part of the story, although an important one as I hated the place.

As it turned out, the entire DP department there got closed about a year later, by which time I'd already been offered contracting work on VMS.

[bogeyman]

Must have done it a long time before then as the first one I worked on was back in '81 in Brentwood (followed by Folkestone, Norf and Sarf Landan and Wellingborough)

Yes, there was actually no such restriction. I made that up in response to Sysman's puzzling dilemma.

In the early/mid 1980s I traveled all over the country working on newly-commissioned datacentres for a major utility billing project (about 20 of them) installing and configuring MVS-ESA.

Utility Co. seemed to insist on putting their new datacentres in the shytiest places. Dudley was a particular highlight. Low rents I expect.

The epic post-commission lunches with the IBM engineering team made up for it to a large degree. Such things could never happen these days.

[darmstadt]

Should have stuck with it.

I believe IBM relaxed the restriction that all mainframes in the UK had to be located within 1.6 miles of the 'magic roundabout' in Swindon in the early 1990s.

Must have done it a long time before then as the first one I worked on was back in '81 in Brentwood (followed by Folkestone, Norf and Sarf Landan and Wellingborough)

[bogeyman]

No surprise there. Back in mainframe days we also had the DR option of getting a mainframe bureau to set up a partition for us. Sorry, don't really remember the details.

But what was it to be? Mainframes and Swindon or VAX/VMS and living in a decent part of the world? The latter won out, though I do wish I'd stayed with mainframes for a bit longer.

Should have stuck with it.

I believe IBM relaxed the restriction that all mainframes in the UK had to be located within 1.6 miles of the 'magic roundabout' in Swindon in the early 1990s.

[Sysman]

You can do that with IBM mainframe systems, how do you think they do DR?

No surprise there. Back in mainframe days we also had the DR option of getting a mainframe bureau to set up a partition for us. Sorry, don't really remember the details.

But what was it to be? Mainframes and Swindon or VAX/VMS and living in a decent part of the world? The latter won out, though I do wish I'd stayed with mainframes for a bit longer.

[NotAllThere]

My first contract was fixing/enhancing an All-In-One application. £25 per hour!

[bogeyman]

Drivel. VAX only deceased because its solutions were expensive and were eventually bought out by compaq, which itself was bought out. Customer loyalty for the endearing mini manufacturer died out.

If you are comparing an IBM mainframe to a VAX then you have already demonstrated ignorance of the DEC family...

FOUND

One sockpupet. Hardly used. In desperate need of return to its owner.

[SQLTerrorist]

I don't miss him, but certainly remember the utter little arse of a VAX sysadmin that used to work for me years ago (early 1990s) telling me how much better VAX systems were than IBM mainframes.

The company we worked for still uses plenty of IBM mainframes but no VAX to be seen.

There was an advert out at the time for a vacuum cleaner that said:

"Nothing sucks like a VAX". Needless to say, the MVS sysprog team made much of this.

Drivel. VAX only deceased because its solutions were expensive and were eventually bought out by compaq, which itself was bought out. Customer loyalty for the endearing mini manufacturer died out.

If you are comparing an IBM mainframe to a VAX then you have already demonstrated ignorance of the DEC family...

[darmstadt]

This thread reminds me of another nice thing about VAX/VMS.

You could take a system disk (complete with compilers, database programs etc.) from one VAX, shove it in any other VAX, and it would boot fine. Naturally you'd need to twiddle the start up files and change network addresses, but it was really simple to do.

You can do that with IBM mainframe systems, how do you think they do DR?

[Sysman]

This thread reminds me of another nice thing about VAX/VMS.

You could take a system disk (complete with compilers, database programs etc.) from one VAX, shove it in any other VAX, and it would boot fine. Naturally you'd need to twiddle the start up files and change network addresses, but it was really simple to do.

[RichardCranium]

There was an advert out at the time for a vacuum cleaner that said:

"Nothing sucks like a VAX". Needless to say, the MVS sysprog team much of this.

You know how the corporate lawyers love to make money from the clients?

Apparently the Vax name usage between the vacuum cleaner company and Digital was all settled with a few letters. One company promised not to move into the vacuum cleaner market and the other promised not to manufacture computers.

As simple as that.

(And rather more honest than Apple Computers' promise to The Beatles not to move into the music market.)

[bogeyman]

I don't miss him, but certainly remember the utter little arse of a VAX sysadmin that used to work for me years ago (early 1990s) telling me how much better VAX systems were than IBM mainframes.

The company we worked for still uses plenty of IBM mainframes but no VAX to be seen.

There was an advert out at the time for a vacuum cleaner that said:

"Nothing sucks like a VAX". Needless to say, the MVS sysprog team made much of this.

[Sysman]

I remember when status was having a VT420 terminal on your desk, so you could have 2 sessions open.

VT520 - those gave you copy and paste between sessions. Also limited scrollback and an alarm facility for lunch break and knock-off time.