Favorite operating systems query

[Sandra Loosemore]

I use both VMS and Un*x every day.  I do nearly all my program development
under VMS, though, and I must admit that I like VMS a bit better.  There
are a lot of operating systems that are a whole lot worse than Un*x though.
(Fortunately, I don't have to use those every day....)

I think the greatest advantage VMS offers over Un*x is the networked/shared
file system.  VMS has had transparent network file access for at least 5
years, and this is just now working its way into Un*x.  (They just installed
this as a "local hack" on the machines at the University of Utah -- it is 
by no means a standard feature yet.)  The VMS machines I use at work are
clustered, so the file structure looks exactly the same no matter which
machine I'm using.  Given the current trend towards distributed computing
environments with personal workstations and compute servers, shared file
systems are very important things for an operating system to support.

Another thing I like about VMS is the documentation.  There is a great deal
of tutorial information and examples in the manuals.  It seems like when
I find I need to do something obscure with Un*x, I can never find the
right command to do it (or the documentation is so terse that I'm never
really sure whether it's the right command or not), and I end up having
to ask a "wizard".  (Unix sites without "wizards" are really in trouble.)
I also wish Un*x had on-line help on how to use the shell, instead of 
just the utilities!

I don't think that either VMS or Un*x has serious problems with file system
reliability; I've never lost a file under either OS.  File versions under
VMS have saved me more times than I can remember, though.  Again, this is
just another place where DEC has taken the trouble to try to "idiot-proof"
things, and we users appreciate it.

Of course, there are bad things about VMS too:  as others have pointed out, 
processes are incredibly slow to start up, the mailer is not too great (but 
neither is the Un*x mailer, for that matter), all of the DEC editors are 
pretty awful (but so is "vi"), etc.  On the whole, though, Un*x is fine if
you want an "open" operating system where you can tweak everything in sight,
but if you just want to get a job done, VMS is a lot less hassle.

-Sandra Loosemore, Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp.
{decwrl, utah-gr!uplherc}!esunix!loosemor
loosemore at utah-20.arpa

[Insert usual disclaimers]