Ultrix/32 & VMS Summary

[Anthony A. Datri]

>> 1. The only way you can have file transfer and remote login is to buy
>>    DECNET for your vms system and DECNET/ULTRIX for your ultrix system.

>     Not true.  One can also obtain TCP/IP for VMS.

Certainly the conceptually better idea.  CMU's TCP only costs about $150, but
I think you need someone fairly VMS-cognizant to keep it going.  Others may
or may not be more robust, but they probably also cost a good bit.  A
predecessor here got DECnet/Ultrix, and with the new Internet gateway stuff,
I get what I need for our very small VMS enclave.

>>    15 Sun3s some Iriss, MacIIs, etc.  The ultrix has more bugs than any other
>>    Unix implementation I have seen.  

>     ience does not support the above assertion.  I would tend to the opposite,
>     that Ultrix is "cleaner" than average.  One problem that relates to this, 
>     tho, is that the documentation is well below average.

Ultrix certainly seems to have arbitrarily dropped peices of BSD, and
weirdified several things.  My Ultrix 3.0 release notes mention a
net-cognisant finger program as a new feature.  The fstab format, for example
is different that everyone else's for no reason that I can discern.

>>    If you stick with the more standard UNIX machines that
>>    have TELNET, FTP, SMTP, NFS, etc., you can minx and match systems from
>>    SUN, HP, IRIS, Apollo, and (in theory only) DEC.

I have nothing but trouble with Apollo's TCP and NFS.  HP has some problems,
like divergent versions of HP-UX, but their TCP and apparently-licensed-from-
Sun NFS work just fine here.  Ultrix TCP and NFS seem to work, modulo things
like a lobotomized finger in 2.2.  I like the selective root access that SunOS
4.0+ gives you, which alleviates the temptation to adb the kernel.

Everyone's sendmail is different, though, which is a real pain.

>     Which of the above is missing from ULTRIX ??  As far as I know, we use 
>     all of them on our ULTRIX machines, which are "mixed and matched" with
>     other vendors' systems.

Apollo finally bundled their TCP in with 10.1.  It was a seperate product
before, and NFS still is, just like C.  I'm not sure how HP markets them.
It's nice that Ultrix comes with TCP and NFS.  Now if only their installation
instructions were correct, and if only my DEC salescreature could get a clue.

>> 6. In my opinion, VMS is dying.

We can only hope.  But if DEC can get away with de-supporting hardware after
a painfully short lifetime, they can get away with VMS.  Inertia is a powerful
thing.  Look at those big 360's that IBM's still making.

>     Maybe.  But the funeral will be years in coming.

COBOL was accused of being stillborn, but it's still there as well.

-- 
@disclaimer(Any concepts or opinions above are entirely mine, not those of my
	    employer, my GIGI, my VT05, or my 11/34)
beak is@>beak is not
Anthony A. Datri @SysAdmin(Stepstone Corporation) aad at stepstone.com stpstn!aad