How do Unix and VMS compare?

[Eric Stern]

   People seem to have misguided perceptions of VMS users
and have come up with some pretty funny ideas of why VMS
software may cost more than Unix software.  I suspect that
the reason VMS software costs more than UNIX software is
that VMS software if of course only written for Vaxen, while
UNIX software is written for any UNIX machine.  Some UNIX
machines are quite inexpensive these days, so trying to
sell software that costs a large fraction of the machine
price doesn't make sense, while after paying $350,000 for
a VAX, an extra $2000 of $5000 or whatever doesn't seem
that much, especially if it saves the equivalent amount
in programmer salary to develop the application locally.
Now on the specific points:

	1) Organizations that use VMS are used to spending more
	   for the same functionality and performance.
	   Universities are cheap.

I can't believe that UNIX gives the same performance and
functionality on a VAX as VMS does.  This is not the
place to go into details, but the resource management on
VMS is far more advanced and efficient than on UNIX.

	2) It is more difficult to make things work on VMS.
	   Therefore there is less potential competition.

What kind of remark is this?  It is just as easy to make
something work under VMS as it is in UNIX.  In certain cases
it is easier, for instance a data base application doesn't have
to write an entire indexing record system from scratch.

	3) VMS users tend to be end users while UNIX users
	   tend to be capable of rolling their own applications.
	   VMS users need more hand holding.

I might agree that VMS users tend to be more end users than
UNIX people, but I have to disagree with the last statement.
I am perfectly capable of making my own applications, but I
don't have the time to waste reinventing something that already
exists and works (Another bonus of VMS systems, if it works under
VMS, it works under any VMS), so if somebody has written a
graphics and histogramming package, I am much happier to use it
to accomplish the work I have to do, rather than writing my own.

	4) UNIX software tools and the flexible UNIX user-system
	   interface reduce the need for expensive software.
	   The rigid user-system interfaces one finds in commercial
	   operating systems like VMS creates an opportunity for
	   the commercial software developer.

The user system interface is irrelevant to the person who
is developing application software, all he or she cares about
is the input/output features of the language being used, and
if the language is a standard one like C or Fortran, the IO
is the same for VMS or UNIX.

   Is it possible that a lot of the UNIX software developed is
duplicated effort that is repeated at many institutions?  How many
requests for C cross referencing programs have I seen on the
net?  In VMS, anyone who has a C compiler can make cross references.
The descriptions of UNIX in the prefaces to the UNIX Programmers
Manual, state that UNIX was developed as an environment for
software development.  However, VMS is an environment for
software development and application running.  Maybe people
don't think of UNIX as an environment for running application
programs, so they don't develop them.

				Eric G. Stern
				Dept. of Physics
				SUNY StonyBrook
				stern at bnl
				...!philabs!sbcs!bnl!stern