MIT is the soul of OpenVMS Technology
Link: Neil's OpenVMS Mini-FAQ (from real questions I get all the time)

This entire sub-domain is a private effort of free information.
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Note: my OpenVMS Programmer's Corner has moved here

How VMS (OS Software) separated itself from VAX (hardware)

A very brief overview of major highlights:

• In 1977 Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) introduced the 32-bit VAX-11 architecture as a successor to the 16-bit PDP-11. (VAX-11 could run PDP application software in PDP emulation mode)
  • At this same time, Digital Equipment Corporation introduced the VMS operating system and IS/IT staff in large corporations have not been able to think about VMS without VAX ever since.
• In the mid-to-late 1980s, DEC experimented with RISC technologies by building systems around chips from MIPS
  • At this same time they were working on two skunk-works projects:
    • porting VMS to Intel's IA-32 family (80386, 80486)
      • this project was cancelled causing the human talent to go to Microsoft to produce Windows-NT
    • building their own RISC chip which would be called Alpha
• In the early 1990s DEC released systems based upon Alpha along with a revamped OS known as OpenVMS
• DEC was sold to Compaq in 1998
• in 2001, Compaq (a huge Intel customer) decided to phase out Alpha in favor of Intel's new enterprise chip called IA-64 or Itanium.
  • Compaq sold all Alpha intellectual property to Intel (along with ~ 300 engineers)
  • Compaq was sold to HP in this same year (did HP negotiations have anything to do with Alphacide? Who knows.)
• HP pre-released OpenVMS-8.0 for Itanium on 2003-06-30 for internal use as well as third-party developers
• HP pre-released OpenVMS-8.1 for Itanium on 2003-12-18 for internal use as well as third-party developers
• HP released OpenVMS-8.2 for Itanium and Alpha on 2005-01-13

PRISM/Mica/Emerald/GEM (the birth of Alpha and Windows-NT)

In the mid 1980s DEC started the Prism project to develop RISC technology which would eventually succeed their CISC-based VAX. Dave Cutler headed PRISM (hardware) as well as Mica (software) which would attempt to port VMS to RISC. In July 1988, DEC killed Prism and Mica so they could build systems based upon RISC chips from MIPS. Dave Cutler resigned the following month in August 1988. In October 1988 Dave Cutler, as well as ~40 of his DEC staff, were hired by Microsoft to incorporate VMS 4.x concepts into a new 32-bit GUI OS which became known as Windows-NT (new technology). This technology later morphed into Windows-2000, Windows-XP, Windows Server Edition 2003, etc.

The remainder of my research has been moved here:

• Dave Cutler, Prism, Mica, Emerald, etc.
• Windows-NT is VMS re-implemented the truth is out there!

The DEC Alpha CPU (successor to VAX)

Alpha Links

• www.openvms.org (not affiliated with HP/Compaq)
• DEC Alpha Info (Wikipedia)
• Advanced info for 21464 (EV8) and 21364 (EV7)
  • Microprocessor Forum: Designers cut fresh paths to parallelism
  • Simultaneous Multi Threading Project at the University of Washington (many articles in PDF format) including:
    • Simultaneous Multithreading: Multiplying Alpha Performance (in PPT format)
  • http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/papers/2005/ieee_heterogeneity.pdf#search=Scalable Architecture Based on Single-Chip Multiprocessing Piranha: A Scalable Architecture Based on Single-Chip Multiprocessing (in PDF format)
• 21264 overview and 21264 product brief (includes EV6, EV67 and EV68)
• XBITLABS: The History of Alpha Processors: Facts and Comments (includes chipset info)
• Alpha: The History in Facts and Comments (mirror)
• Alpha Documentation
  • http://compaq.com/alphaserver/technology/index.html
• Alpha Firmware documentation
  • ftp://ftp.digital.com (gone)
  • http://compaq.com/alphaserver/firmware/
  • ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/alphaserver/firmware/
• Digital Technical Journal (incomplete)
  http://www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/dtj/
• The Complete Digital Technical Journals
  • http://www.dtjcd.vmsresource.org.uk/
• Other: 

  Digital Semiconductor	http://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/info/semiconductor/
  Digital Semiconductor Literature	FTP area including 21264 (EV6).
  DEC Semiconductor Archive	ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/info/semiconductor/literature/archives.html
  DEC Semiconductor Archive	ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/info/semiconductor/literature/dsc-library.html

My First Alpha

Our skunk works has just (99.11.30) been asked to attempt a trial port of some OpenVMS applications from VAX to Alpha. We acquired six AlphaServer 4100 (with DUNIX 4.1 installed) from a cancelled project within our company and now one of them is in my lab.

This specific machine is an AlphaServer 4100 5/300 which was manufactured in 1996. It contains a single 21164 (EV5) CPU running at 300 MHz with 2 MB of cache and 256 MB of RAM. Five modules can be installed in the CPU chassis (one for the PCI/EISA interconnect and four for CPU's). Because of the clock speed I thought this machine might be a bit of a dog but it "seems" much faster than my VAX-6430 (at least it boots up five times faster). I always have to remind myself that these pipelined super scalar 64 bit RISC CPUs are usually more powerful than they first appear.

• Click here to see where the 21164 (EV5) is located on the Alpha family tree
• Click here to view an " VAX vs. Alpha CPU" chart as well as some charts comparing VAX and Alpha performance in units called PERFs (I guess they don't use VUPs any more).

The disk subsystem is based upon MYLEX configurable RAID controllers which connect to five "storage works" arrays (each filled with six 4 GB SCSI drives). Since all RAID functions are handled in hardware, the CPU can pay more attention to running the OS and apps. The controller can be modified with a configuration program to support RAID #1 (mirroring), RAID #0 (striping), RAID 0+1 (a.k.a. RAID #10) and RAID #5 (complete multiple disk redundancy). Note that we chose "RAID 0+1" since this method provides that will tolerate multi-drive failure in a single raid-set.

All the chassis boards (except CPU and memory) are either PCI or EISA based so these machines are considerably less expensive than the VAXs they are about to replace.

Click here to watch the port as it proceeds...

Intel Itanium (successor to DEC Alpha)

Itanium Links

• http://www.hp.com/go/integrity (adding to the confusion, HP calls their Itanium-based servers Integrity)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itanium
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tukwila_(processor)
• http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20060720235512.html (Intel Finally Unveils Dual-Core Itanium 2 Processors)
• http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20060120105942.html (Intel Scraps Hardware x86 Support on Dual-Core Itanium 2 Chips)
• Hobbyists Note: you can find lots of rx2600 machines on eBay for really decent prices (mostly from repo companies)
• http://www.itaniumsolutions.org/

Intel releases Tukwila (February 8, 2010)

• Tukwila is now officially known as Itanium 9300
• quad core
• 2 billion transistors
• support for DDR3 memory
• replaces 20-year old FSB (front side bus) with QPI (quick path interface) previously known as CSI (common system interface)
  • Note: this technology came from DEC Alpha 21464 (EV8) which was cancelled in 25 June 2001
    (yep, it only took 8.5 years for that technology to percolate into this release)
• the next chip is codenamed Poulson which will come out 24 months after Tukwila (e.g. 2012)
• the next chip is codenamed Kittson which will come out 24 months after Poulson (eg. 2014)
• http://www.hp.com/go/integrity
• http://www.tgdaily.com/networking-brief/48339-intel-itanium-outsells-amd-opteron
• http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9153618/After_delays_Intel_rolls_out_Tukwila_chip
• http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/02/16--and-48-core-monster-chips-on-tap-at-next-weeks-isscc.ars
• http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2008/02/intel-shows-off-tukwila-first-2-billion-transistor-cpu.ars
• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/08/itanium_9300_rollout/

Intel releases Poulson (November 8, 2012)

• Poulson is now officially known a Itanium 9500
• eight core
• 3.1 billion transistors
• moves from VLIW to a more conventional (RISC) pipeline. ( reference: http://www.realworldtech.com/poulson/ )
• more articles:
  • http://www.realworldtech.com/?s=poulson
  • http://search.theregister.co.uk/?q=poulson

OpenVMS Stability

Deemed unhackable at DEFCON 9 (2001) and told "never to return to DEFCON"

• http://www.vmsone.com/~opcom/defcon9.htm
• http://dahmer.vistech.net/defcon.txt
• http://www.openvms.org/stories.php?story=03/02/11/2704232
• http://www.pointsecure.com/pdf/HPPSletter.pdf

as of today...

• OpenVMS has never been infected by a virus
• OpenVMS has never been affected by a worm (since the big internet worm of 1988)
• the only time I've even heard of a VMS hack was in a November 1997 episode of the X-Files titled "Unusual Suspects" which was a flash back to 1989. In 1997 most commercial installations would have been running OpenVMS-7.1 while military machines would have been running a hardened version not available to the public.

Byers:	Okay. Let's see here. So your ex-boyfriend is into computers?
Susanne:	I don't really know. I knew very little about him, except that he's psychotic.
Byers:	Somehow, this kicked us into the Defense Data Network. I'm sorry, I think this is the end of the line.
Susanne:	Isn't there something you could, uh... I mean, how do you say it? Hack into?
Byers:	Hack into? No! I mean, technically, yes, I probably could, but this belongs to the Department of Defense. This is a secured site. I mean, I work for the FCC. This is the kind of thing we're trying to stop.
Susanne:	Thank you, John. I appreciate your time.
Byers:	Wait. You didn't see this.
Susanne:	What did you do?
Byers:	Oh, it's a government system. I know a couple of logon tricks with VMS version five... never mind.

The "Current Installation" Password Myth:

• In VMS 5.x and earlier, the installation script created three privileged accounts (SYSTEM, MANAGER, FIELD) with factory passwords and a warning to change them after first boot. A few bozos never heeded the warning which meant their systems were wide-open to anyone who knew the factory passwords.
  
• Beginning with OpenVMS-6.2 (released 1995-06) the installation tool forces you to choose new passwords before creating these accounts. Also, you were not allowed to use simple passwords or set the password equal to the account name. OpenVMS-7.1 was released in 1996-12 while OpenVMS-8.2 was released in 2005-02 but the password myth still persists.

OpenVMS SAVESET Technical Info

• an "OpenVMS SAVESET" is a compressed file that was created using the $BACKUP command
• your SAVESET files may have names like "filename.bck", "filename.sav", etc.
• VMSINSTAL SAVESET files have names like "filename.a", "filename.b", "filename.c", etc.
• example SAVESET block sizes
  • 00512 (512 x 01) resultant size after an FTP transfer
  • 08192 (512 x 16) default size for TAPE
  • 09216 (512 x 18) usual size for SAVESETS required by VMSINSTAL (eg. "filename.a" etc.)
  • 32256 (512 x 63) default size for DISK
• Because I'm paranoid...
  • once a day I use $BACKUP to produce a SAVESET of all my source code to tape (I rotate through a 20 tape set on each one of my nodes)
  • once a week I use $BACKUP to produce a SAVESET of all my source code to disk and then use FTP to do an image (binary) transfer it to my Windows-NT machine where I permanently write it to a CD-ROM. (It is a good thing to have years of backup files just in case you need to retrieve a deleted module or have spent years backing up a corrupt file)
    • note that the FTP transfer actually changes the blocksize of the SAVESET to 512 bytes almost always rendering it useless to OpenVMS. If the SAVESET is ever copied back to an OpenVMS machine, you'll need this DCL program before $BACKUP can extract the files. Alternatively, use this DCL command:
      
      $ SET FILE/ATTRIBUTES=(RFM:FIX,MRS:32256,LRL:32256,RAT:NONE) file.bck
      
      and make sure you have a hardcopy of this in an emergency procedures binder at your site.
      Click here to find more information about "FTP Induced SAVESET Corruption"
    • also note that using NFS corrupts the file in a slightly different way (fixed becomes stream)
  • once a week I use INFO-ZIP to produce a ZIP file of all my source code to disk and then use FTP to do an image (binary) transfer of it to my Windows-NT machine where I permanently write it to a CD-ROM. With the free "UDF Volume Reader" from Roxio you'll be able to view/extract files to Windows machines that don't have CD-ROM burner software loaded.

Recommended OpenVMS Books

Writing VAX/VMS Applications Using Pascal

• Published 1991 by Digital Press
• Author: Theo De Klerk
• this rare gem contains some of the best descriptions and examples of OpenVMS system calls from a high level language
• I've found it relatively easy to translate these examples to other languages like HP-BASIC and HP-C
• out of print but still available from used book dealers (try www.bookfinder.com or www.Amazon.com)
• highly recommended for programmers

Writing Real Programs in DCL, Second Edition

• Published 1998-1999 by Digital Press
• Authors: Steve Hoffman and Paul Anagnostopoulos
• Caveat: Just as it is nearly impossible to acquire a copy of the Apple II Red Book (1978) by Steve Wozniak, you will not find available copies of Writing Real Programs in DCL unless you are willing to fork over $150^.00 to $500^.00 to the used book market. I personally do not own a copy but have been able to read it online at work since my employer has a paid up subscription to Books 24x7 (just search the titles for "DCL")

DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC: The Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation (2003, 2004) by Edgar H. Schein

Digital Equipment Corporation achieved sales of over $14 billion, reached the Fortune 50, and was second only to IBM as a computer manufacturer. Though responsible for the invention of speech recognition, the minicomputer, and local area networking, DEC ultimately failed as a business and was sold to Compaq Corporation in 1998. [HP bought, er, merged with, Compaq in 2002]. This fascinating modern Greek tragedy by Ed Schein, a high-level consultant to DEC for 40 years, shows how DEC's unique corporate culture contributed both to its early successes and later to an organizational rigidity that caused its ultimate downfall.

• introduction
  1. Purpose and Overview
  2. Three Developmental Streams: A Model for Deciphering the Lessons of the DEC Story
• part one: The Creation of a Culture of Innovation: The Technology, Organization, and Culture Streams are One and the Same
  3. Ken Olsen, the Scientist-Engineer
  4. Ken Olsen, the Leader and Manager
  5. Ken Olsen, the Salesman-Marketer
  6. DEC's Cultural Paradigm
  7. DEC's "Other" Legacy: The Development of Leaders (by Tracy C. Gibbons)
  8. DEC's Impact on the Evolution of Organization Development
• part two: The Streams Diverge, Causing an Organizational Midlife Crisis
  9. The Impact of Changing Technology (by Paul Kampas)
  10. The Impact of Success, Growth, and Age
  11. Learning Efforts Reveal Cultural Strengths and Rigidities
  12. The Turbulent 1980s: Peaking but Weakening
      • DEC Launches Three PCs
      • Gordon Bell's Departure and its Consequences
      • Turmoil in the Engineering Organization: Competition with IBM, and PRISM, Aquarius, and Alpha [and MIPS]
  13. The Beginning of the End: Ken Olsen's Final Efforts to Save DEC
• part three: Lessons and Legacies
  14. Obvious Lessons and Subtle Lessons
  15. The Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation
• Appendixes
  1. DEC's Technical Legacy
  2. DEC's Manufacturing: Contributions Made and Lessons Learned (by Michael Sonduck)
  3. DEC, the First Knowledge Organization (a 1991 Memo by Debra Rogers Amidon)
  4. Digital: The Strategic Failure (by Peter DeLisi)
  5. What Happened? A Postscript (by Gordon Bell)

MIT Sloan School of Management Professor Edgar Schein does a marvellous job telling the story of the rise and fall of Digital Equipment Corporation, the former #2 computer maker in the world behind IBM. The business reasons behind DEC's economic failure have been widely reported (missing the advent of the PC, having too many projects going at once, failure to market products effectively, etc.) However, the big question to be answered is why did these failures occur? To quote one passage, "Why did an organization that was wildly successful for thirty-five years, filled with intelligent, articulate powerful engineers and managers, fail to act effectively to deal with problems that were highly visible to everyone, both inside and outside the organization?"

Schein looks at DEC's failure through the lens of its corporate culture, and how it prohibited their executives from making the decisions, and taking the actions necessary to survive. Fans of Ed Schein will know his famous "Three Cultures of Management" paper, in which he describes the "Executive", "Line Manager" and "Engineering" cultures, all of which must exist and be balanced against one another for an organization to survive. Schein argues that DEC was dominated by the engineering culture, which valued innovation and "elegant" design, over profits and operational efficiency. This engineering culture dominated even the top levels of DEC, where proposals to build PCs out of off the shelf parts that were readily available in the marketplace, were shot down because the machines were thought to be junk compared to the ones DEC could build themselves.

That DEC was able to survive for as long as it did was largely attributable to its ability to innovate in a field that was so new it had not yet coalesced around certain standard systems, software and networks. However, as the computer industry became in effect a commodity market, and the buyers began to value price over innovation, DEC found itself increasingly unable, and in fact, unwilling to compete. The engineering culture which valued innovation and required creative freedom, did not want to subject itself to the requirements of being a commodity player which demanded autocratic operational efficiency and control over how resources were allocated.

Although DEC is now long gone, even readers who were too young to use computers at the time of its demise will find familiar truths in this book. As the old saying goes, the fish in the tank does not see the water it is in. Neither do we often see the cultures in which we are ourselves embedded. The real lesson of this wonderful book is to show us how our corporate cultures often prohibit us from doing the right things, even when we can see them clearly. Sometimes culture is most easily visible in the things you need to discuss, but that are simply "not on the table" for discussion.

There are many lessons here too, for companies that seek to innovate new products and services, and how to balance the creative freedom desired by the engineering culture with the "money gene" culture of sound executive management. The names of companies that have failed to realize the full financial benefits of their technical innovations is too long to list here. But the DEC story is a must read for anyone who seeks to balance innovation with sustainable economic success in any organization.

OpenVMS System Management Guide (second edition)

• Published December-2003 by Digital Press/HP
• Authors: Lawrence Baldwin, Steve Hoffman, David Miller
• 656 pages
• Available from various sellers including Amazon
• conversational boot, common system disk, retransmit limit, login command procedures, bootable environment, device control libraries, autostart queues, system dump file, system login procedures, standalone backup, system startup procedures, datalink address, default version limit, default boot device, installing freeware, restart control, product authorization key, user login procedure, node eqs, default login directory, cumulative incremental backup, system logical names, manual boot, full image backup, volume shadowing
• Additional References, Disabled Stopped, Digital Press, System Manager's Manual, Bus Model Name Nickname, Management Station, Oracle-Rdb, Digital Equipment Corporation, Ethernet Basics, Identifying Resource Dependencies, Monitoring Application Performance, Qualifier Keyword Meaning, Controlling the Queue Manager, Managing Accounts, Monitoring Hardware Errors, Page Read, Reducing Login Time, Security-Related Login Parameters, Sue Rosselet, System Dump-File Considerations, System Memory Resources, System-Startup Sequence, Using File Expiration Dates, Cluster Configurations, Configuring Default Boot Control Flags

Rdb: A Comprehensive Guide - Third Edition

• Published 1999 by Digital Press (Butterworth-Heinemann)
• Authors: Lilian Hobbs, Ian Smith, Ken England
• a must-have book for anyone using or supporting Oracle-Rdb; very thorough
• this edition is very SQL oriented (probably a good thing) but...
  contains very little information about RDO (which is only bad if you need to maintain some very old Rdb applications still using RDO). Earlier editions may differ from this statement.
• only 10 pages devoted to application development (accessing Oracle-Rdb from a high level language) which is why I created my own documentation web page (link-1) and demo programs (link-2).
  1. Click OpenVMS Notes: RMS + Oracle-Rdb + MySQL for more information from this web site
  2. Click RDB Demos to download a zip file containing over 40 files on how to use RDB from VMS-BASIC
  3. Click this link for Oracle-Rdb Documentation
  4. Click the following link to view the official Oracle Rdb7 Guide to SQL Programming manual
• still available from the publisher or online book retailers (try www.bookfinder.com or www.Amazon.com)
• Third Edition details
• Second Edition details
• First Edition details

TP Software Development for OpenVMS

• Published 1994 by CBM Books (101 Witmer Road, Horsham, PA. 19044)
• Author: John M. Willis
• this rare gem covers "transaction processing" on OpenVMS. Topics include: ACMS (Application Control Management System), CDD/Repository, DECforms, SQL, Rdb. High level program examples are in COBOL.
• out of print but still available from used book dealers (try www.bookfinder.com or www.Amazon.com)
• highly recommended for business applications developers and "Oracle-Rdb" programmers
• click here for more details

OpenVMS Community

Professional Associations

• Digital Equipment Corporation User's Society
  • North America
    • DECUS (forwards to Encompassus.org)
    • DECUS Canada (a.k.a. Canadian Association of Compaq Users) is now www.EncompassCanada.com
    •  DECUSLIBrary.COMpendium http://decuslib.com
  • Europe
    • DECUS Germany
• www.openvms.org (not affiliated with HP)

Encompass LISTSERV

Function	Email Address	Subject
Getting Help	LISTSERV@LISTSERV.ENCOMPASSUS.ORG	HELP
Adding your name	LISTSERV@LISTSERV.ENCOMPASSUS.ORG	SUBSCRIBE VMS-SIG
Removing your name	LISTSERV@LISTSERV.ENCOMPASSUS.ORG	UNSUBSCRIBE
Sending a message	VMS-SIG@LISTSERV.ENCOMPASSUS.ORG	whatever

OpenVMS News Group Info

Note: newsgroups are accessed with a news reader on port 119. Alternatively you may use a browser like so:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.vms

OpenVMS

• news: comp.os.vms or archives of the same www.DeJa.com (now part of Google)
• news: comp.databases.rdb
• news: de.comp.os.vms
• news: fr.comp.os.vms
  
  

DECUS (Digital Equipment Corporation User Society)

• news: comp.org.decus
• news: ne.org.decus
• news: no.org.decus

OpenVMS Hobbyist

If you've acquired an old VAX (or a not so old Alpha) and would like a virtually free "totally legal" OpenVMS license in order to run the machine at home, then check out the www.vmshobbyist.org (1,693,064 licenses as of 2011-11-30) where you'll also find licenses for many layered products such as:

• TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS (a.k.a. UCX or Unix Communications eXtensions)
• Volume Shadowing (an OpenVMS software form of "RAID 1" a.k.a. mirroring)
• DEC Windows Motif (an X-window GUI that originated at MIT)
• many language compilers including:
  • COBOL, FORTRAN, Pascal, BASIC, C, CXX (Digital's name for C++)
  • Geek Alert: you have not lived until you have experienced the beauty of a DEC compiler. The first time you go through the Edit - Compile - Link - Run cycle is the nearest thing to nirvana that you will ever experience this side of heaven. I recommend BASIC because of the built in support for creating SEQUENTIAL, RELATIVE and INDEXED files. (Language "Reference Manuals" and "User Manuals" may seem expensive but are very worth while because they go way beyond the online help. Click here if you're on a budget)
  • Product Naming Caveats:
    • VAX-C 3.2 evolved into DEC-C 4.0 (now 6.2). VAX-C only ran on the VAX; DEC-C binaries are available for either VAX or Alpha.
    • DEC-CXX (a.k.a. C++) binaries are available for either VAX or Alpha.
    • VAX-BASIC only runs on VAX (was renamed to Compaq-BASIC for VAX then HP-BASIC for VAX)
    • DEC-BASIC only runs on Alpha (was renamed to Compaq-BASIC for Alpha then HP-BASIC for Alpha)
• click http://www.process.com/openvms/index.html to visit the OpenVMS Hobbyist program at Process Software (if you decide to use their TCPware product as your I/P stack then you'll be able to call their built-in FTP and Telnet APIs from high level language like HP-BASIC and "C".)

Purchasing a non-Hobbyist License

1. a cold standby system in another city
2. hot standby in another city (we would FTP five save sets each night over the corporate intranet)
3. 2-node cluster with the secondary node in another city

1. one OpenVMS base license for machine #2
2. one 128-user OpenVMS license for machine #2
3. two OpenVMS cluster licenses for both nodes

About a month after receiving the HP quote, I was "cold-called" by a salesman from a third-party vendor in New York state. I told him about my recent HP quote so he asked to see it. An hour later he sent me a his quote which came in at $12.5k. He also mentioned that he couldn't find any of HP's quoted prices in any of his catalogues.

Questions?

1. Does HP provide higher quotes to larger companies? (maybe)
2. Why was the third party salesman able to offer me a price one third of HP's discounted quote? (don't know)
3. Why doesn't HP publish these amounts in-the-clear on their web site? (everyone knows the retail price of Windows)
4. HP outsourced technical support of OpenVMS software to India but why didn't they outsource their do-nothing no-value-add sales?
5. My employer gets steep discounts from Microsoft (big companies pay much less). If this continues, my employer will be 100% Windows and I will be forced to use that OS unless I get a lower price on something else (like Linux or Ubuntu which are both free to acquire)

OpenVMS Freeware, Shareware, and Generally Cool Info

VMS Web Ring (higher quality info and links... be sure to check these sites first...)

Join the OpenVMS WebRing Previous  SkipPrevious  SkipNext  Next List  Random  Next5

Non-Web Ring Links (with a few exceptions)

• HP's OpenVMS Freeware Index - the complete collection
• When Compaq took over DEC they moved all OpenVMS Documents (remember the orange/gray wall of binders?) onto a single CD-ROM which could be used on either Windows or OpenVMS. Since then, HP has added so much more information that one CD is now three. Click here if you don't own your own CD-ROM copy.
• Process Software produces both TCPware and MultiNet TCP/IP stacks for VAX, Alpha and Itanium platforms running OpenVMS.
  • TCPware allows your applications to communicate directly with the TCP/IP stack via calls to three different API's: TELNET Library, FTP Library, and Socket Library. (Compare this with HP's "TCP/IP Services For OpenVMS" which only has a programmer's interface to the Socket Library which means you have to write the other stuff yourself.)
• Compaq's port of Apache for OpenVMS Alpha is called CSWS (Compaq Secure Web Server). HP rebranded this product SWS (Secure Web Server) in 2003. FYI: Apache got its name by taking the public domain NCSA server product and "patching it" so that it works properly. This is the same process that is making Linux so powerful; You take the best computer minds on the planet and have them collaborate in a world wide public forum (open source) to get a product that is better than any commercial variety.
  Click here for my OpenVMS Notes: Apache
• OpenVMS OSU DECthreads HTTP Server - Software Home Page at Ohio State University.
  • Server Preview Area for Beta releases
  • Server Software Documentation (including FAQ etc.) from David Jones (server author)
  • OpenVMS OSU DECthreads HTTP Server Docs from DEC at Harvey Mudd College
  • Click here for fail safe instructions for installing OSU DECthreads HTTP Server (another page on this web site)
• DEC94MDS archived technical manuals including VAX, uVAX,  DECserver, DECconcentrator, DECbridge, DECrouter, VT420, etc.
  • http://deathrow.vistech.net/~cvisors/DEC94MDS/ DEC document list
  • http://decdoc.itsx.net/dec94mds/ DEC document list
  • http://computer-refuge.org/classiccmp/dec94mds/ DEC document list
  • http://bibernet.org/dec94mds/ DEC document list
• DEC Material from http://www.antinode.org/dec/index.html
• labs.HoffmanLabs.org by Stephen Hoffman (lots of OpenVMS stuff)
  • www.hoffmanlabs.org
  • Programming in C on OpenVMS
• eight-cubed.com - Programming Examples very high quality "C" demos for OpenVMS
• my OpenVMS Programmer's Corner mostly VMS-BASIC but some VMS-C
• Phil Ottewell VMS site. Which includes:
  • "Intro to C" (C programming from a DEC-C & VAX-C perspective) <<<---Highly Recommended
  • C++ STL Tutorial <<<---Highly Recommended
• CETS2000 - Robert Gezelter Session Notes
  • CETS2001 - Robert Gezelter Session Notes
• Database technology:
  • RMS (Record Management System) is ISAM technology which is built-in to OpenVMS. It is small, fast, and free. It is directly accessible from many OpenVMS languages like "HP BASIC for OpenVMS" but only indirectly accessible from some other languages like "HP C".
    Note: ISAM = Indexed Sequential Access Method
  • Download MySQL for OpenVMS from Jean-François Piéronne. MySQL is "Open Source" and free.
  • Attunity is used to provide SQL access to your existing RMS data files.
  • Oracle-Rdb is the usual upgrade path from RMS (ISAM) to SQL on OpenVMS.
  • Click OpenVMS Notes: RMS + Oracle-Rdb + MySQL (another page on this web site)
• Arne Vajhøj VMS site
• Ghostscript for OpenVMS by Mark Berryman (can be used to generate PDFs)
  • 35 MB http://mvb.saic.com/freeware/pcsi_kits/ghostscript-v0854/ (oops, this site appears to be gone)
  • 35 MB http://decuslib.com/decus/pcsi_kits/ghostscript-v0854/
  • 90 MB http://www.theberrymans.com/php_kits/ghostscript-9_05-updated.zip
• Hunter Goatley VMS site.
  • Windows 2000 software for VMS users
  • OpenVMS @ Process Software
• DECUS Germany is the home of Martin Zinser
  • Undocumented OpenVMS Commands
• VMS freeware at the University of Udine, Italy
• VAXarchive.org
• Intro to VMS at the Max-Planck-Institut für Physik (Werner Heisenberg Institut) in Munich, Germany. (München, Deutschland)
  • Includes VMS Tutorials and FAQ's
• Alpha, VAX, and PDP at the Russian Academy of Sciences
• PDP FAQ
• The PDP-11 FAQ
• DEC Rainbow 100
• Jim Agnew MicroVAX FAQ's (Virginia Commonwealth University)
• On-line Perl Manual at the Max-Planck-Institut für Physik (Werner Heisenberg Institut) in Munich, Germany. (München, Deutschland)
• Various On-Line Manuals at the Max-Planck-Institut für Physik (Werner Heisenberg Institut) in Munich, Germany. (München, Deutschland)
• VAXarchive.org and mirror
  • PDP-11 Archive and links
• pdp-11.trailing-edge.com PDP-11 archives
• metalab.unc.edu/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-11/ freeware archives includes: RT-11, RSX-11, RSTS/E, POS, VENIX, XINU
• Attachmate is the company that produces "Reflection Suite" which provides the best "X-windows" and "VT Terminal" emulation I've ever seen. They support everything from SERIAL to TCP/IP and LAT (they include a LAT driver for Windows). They've even got a solution called Reflection Web which puts a "VT Terminal" inside your browser to get the "GUI only" people off your back.
• www.vt100.net (VT Terminal Programming + User Guides)

Miscellaneous OpenVMS Links

• www.openvms.org (not affiliated with HP/Compaq)
• www.saiga.com produces many cool (but not for free) OpenVMS utilities including HITMAN and FERRET
• http://vmsbox.cjb.net/vms-hackfaq/ allows a VMS newbie to get up to speed fast
• http://vms.stabilit.ch/uspweb/index.html free XML-RPC middleware
• http://www.xmlrpc.com/ - XML - RPC - not OpenVMS specific but might be helpful to some
• Issues of Digital Technical Journal (1993-1998) are now online at HP
• Digital Technical Journals machine-readable archive at http://www.dtjcd.vmsresource.org.uk
• Compaq & DEC Technical Reports
• http://www.ptlsim.org/papers/ - see the Alpha and I64 folders
• http://www.ptlsim.org/papers/Research/ - see the EV8 and EV9 papers

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My Links

• My OpenVMS Mini-FAQ page
• Visit my OpenVMS demo page (everything is free of charge)
• My "VAX to Alpha" Porting Diary page
• OpenVMS vs. UNIX - antagonists or sisters? (UNIX is older)
• Windows-NT is VMS re-implemented the truth is out there!
• Click RISCy C/C++ Code to read a DECUS article discussing problems that might arise when writing C and C++ programs for RISC architectures