The Open VMS Program is great. I worked with VAX VMS from 1982 to 1989 as an application programmer (FORTRAN) and system manager. My greatest accomplishment though was developping a DecWindows application in C, in 1989.
For the last 5 years, I have been playing around with GNU/Linux, C programming and Shell usage (mostly Bash).
When I got back to VMS, first with the DECUSERVE server and then with my own simulated VAX (on Simh), I realized how DCL is so much simpler to use than the Unix shells. If you need help, just type ...
help
And VMS's interactive help is much simpler to use than the Unix's man.
Commands are easier to remember:
DELETE
to delete a file ("rm" in Unix, makes sense too, but you have to remember that it is the abbreviation of "remove".)
RENAME
to change the name of a file ("mv" for "move" in Unix).
TYPE
to print the content of a text file (Unix: "cat", why?).
And the best:
SEACH
to ... you guess what (in Unix "grep" - what the h... !!!!????).
Well, just to say it is a lot of fun to be able to use a no nonsense OS again. Thanks to the Hobbyist team.
malmberg August 04 2022 No more VAX hobbyist licenses.
Community licenses for Alpha/IA64/X86_64 VMS Software Inc.
Commercial VMS software licenses for VAX available from HPE.
ozboomer July 20 2022 Just re-visiting.. No more hobbyist licenses? Is that from vmssoftware.com, no 'community' licenses?
valdirfranco July 01 2022 No more hobbyist license...sad
mister_wavey February 12 2022 I recall that the disks failed on the public access VMS systems that included Fafner
parwezw January 03 2022 Anyone know what happened to FAFNER.DYNDS.ORG?
I had a hobbyist account here but can longer access the site.
gtackett October 27 2021 Make that DECdfs _2.1A_ for Vax
gtackett October 27 2021 I'm looking for DECdfs V2.4A kit for VAX.
Asking here just in case anyone is still listening.
MarkRLV September 17 2021 At one time, didn't this web site have a job board? I would love to use my legacy skills one last time in my career.
malmberg January 18 2021 New Hobbyist PAKs for VAX/VMS are no longer available according to reports. Only commercial licenses are reported to be for sale from HPE
dfilip January 16 2021 Can someone please point me to hobbyist license pak? I'm looking for VAX/VMS 7.1, DECnet Phase IV, and UCX/TCPIP ... have the 7.1 media, need the license paks ... thanks!
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