...and the VMS chapter in the history books closes

[kingfish]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/10 ... th_notice/


I suppose it had to happen.

Even though I wasn't really a DEC fan (dad worked for Honeywell back in the heyday of the mini & mainframe),
I feel for those who have an affinity for an O.S. that actually had a solid foundation.

My condolences.

I do hope they let the source into the public domain, I could see it being brought back to life in the basement labs of mad computer scientists around the globe. And Linux could use the competition.

[crfriend]

I do hope they let the source into the public domain, I could see it being brought back to life in the basement labs of mad computer scientists around the globe. And Linux could use the competition.

I need to fire up my VAX and renew the 1-year license PAK just in case....

[Caultron]

Sorry to see it go, but with Windows, Linux, Mac, and iOS, I guess there just no niche for it.

[crfriend]

Sorry to see it go, but with Windows, Linux, Mac, and iOS, I guess there just no niche for it.

VMS harks back to the days when computing was interesting and enjoyable; nowadays we pretty much get none of that as "computers" have degenerated into "entertainment systems" that push "content" (much of it questionable) in our general direction. Gone are the days when one had to be able to write programs to get things done -- and gone are the benefits when it comes to logical thinking that knowing how to program brought. And gone are the days when just tinkering with a computer was fun just to see what you could get it to do.

Certainly iOS falls squarely into the "entertainment" camp, and Mac and Windows are very close to it; Linux is interesting but it's not really an "industrial-stength" OS in the way that VMS was is.

[Caultron]

Oh, I hear you. I started writing FORTRAN programs on an IBM 7094 back in 1966, and made a living for some time writing COBOL programs for an IBM mainframe.

But there's still a need for professional programmers: somebody has to create and maintain Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, and all the software that runs on them. And I still make a living spewing out code; it's just C## Web applications that run on Windows Server now. The basic concepts of sequential instructions, loops, subroutines, datatypes, and database design, and so on all remain the same. Von Neumann got it right.

And thank heavens for all those non-programming computer users out there. Without them, we'd have no users, no customers, and no jobs.

[skirted_in_SF]

Linux is interesting but it's not really an "industrial-stength" OS in the way that VMS was is.

Am I mistaken, or doesn't most of the web run on some version of Linux. Also I think many of the newest supercomputers do too. Admittedly, not Ubuntu, but a heavily customized Linux anyway.