On Thu, 21 Oct 2004, Mike Miller wrote:
> It is interesting that so many people believe that VMS is superior to UNIX
> OSs, yet VMS is basically dying and being replaced by UNIX/Linux. This
> has been going on for a decade or so, at least at universities.
Unix has one advantage VMS doesn't/didn't have: Unix is open source.
VMS's success is tied to DEC's success- DEC gets bought out, their buyer
gets bought out, development teams get downsized to pure maintainance,
sales forces are non-existant, current customers are maintained only
until they can be switched over to some other platform, and VMS dies as
well. VMS joins the ranks of AmigaOS, DomainOS, Primos, and other
"superior" technology OSs in the dustbin of tech history.
Meanwhile, if AT&T leaves the market, sells the code "rights" to someone
else, who subleases them to a bunch of a**holes, Unix itself isn't much
hurt. Development goes on, even whole new from-scratch implementations
show up (like Linux). Unix as managed to even transcend a specific
software implementation and become an almost idealized concept.
--
"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive,
difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of
mind-boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it."
- Gene Spafford
Brian
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