unix in the real world (long, sorry)

[Larry Campbell]

Both the original questions and the "answers" here require correction:

> > 	1. What is the operating system(s) most often used by DEC?

Do you mean "used by DEC internally" or "used by DEC customers"?
And by "most often" do you mean "dollars spent", "users logged in",
"cycles burned", "licenses sold", "keystrokes typed", "terminals connected"?
The question as posed is meaningless.

> > 	2. Same question as above, but as it regards multi user systems.

Meaningless again (and, aren't all *real* operating systems multi-user?).

> > 	3. Do the other systems offer the inter/intra communications
> > 	   capabilities of a Unix system?

Another meaningless question.  What Unix are you talking about?  V7?
BSD 2.9?  BSD 4.2?  Sys V?  What communications facilities?  Pipes?  Sockets?
Streams?  Classic Unix (V6/V7) is actually very weak in this area.

> > 	4. Is there a movement by DEC towards one particular operating
> > 	   system over another (i.e) VMS ?

Absolutely.  DEC has essentially (and publicly) said "VMS is it, everyone
else out of the pool".

> > 	5. And more generally, is there a growth in the use of commercial
> > 	   Unix, or is it still the 'baby' of the universities?

> > Pat Gallivan @                   Postal : 7122 S. Fillmore, Littleton, CO 80122 
> > Galon Exploration, Inc.          Data:  (303) 771-0258         
> >                                  UUCP: ..!hao{!nbires!isis}!galon!fmg

The number I keep hearing is that about 10% of all VAXes run Unix;  the
rest run VMS.  I don't know what the percentage is for PDP-11s but I suspect
it's similar.  The percentage seems to be growing but only very slowly.

> 1.&2.
>     VMS is most common for vaxen.

True.

>     RSX-11, RT-11, and RSTS are all available for pdp-11s, and the
>     choice is influenced by the application.

There's also IAS and P/OS, which are essentially RSX variants.  And in
terms of number of licenses, CP/M and MS-DOS (for the Rainbow) represent
a significant chunk of DEC's business.

>     TOPS-10 and TOPS-20 are available for pdp-10 type hardware.
>     All of the above attempt to be multi-user except for RT-11 (unless
>     something has changed since I last used it ...)
>     All are distinguished by the fact that they were written by DEC
>     (except for RSTS, I believe).

Wrong.  RSTS *was* developed by DEC, but TOPS-20 *wasn't*.  TOPS-20 started
life as TENEX, written by Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN).  DEC bought the
rights, added lots of useful features and made it reliable.

> 3.  Some facilities are available, but they are often clumsy or slow.

Half true.  Most of DEC's operating systems are weak in networks, but
VMS actually does quite well in this area (and I'm no fan of VMS!).
VMS gives true transparent remote file access to users and programs, which
is something no Unix I've seen does (perhaps Sun's NFS does this but I've
yet to see it in action).  UUCP is incredibly clumsy and doesn't really
qualify as networking, in my opinion.

> 4.  DEC is pushing Vaxen, and thus VMS ...

Yes.

> 5.  There is an increasing recognition of UNIX in the industry.  There are
>     some very good economic reasons to bring up UNIX rather than write a new
>     opsystem for a new machine.  ...
> 				Rich Welty
> 	CSNet:   weltyrp at rpi
> 	ArpaNet: weltyrp.rpi at csnet-relay
> 	UUCP:  seismo!rpics!weltyrp

DEC supports Unix because many customers demand it.  DEC's support for Unix
was at first grudging but now appears to be growing more genuine.  It is
obviously in DEC's interest to favor VMS, but if you really want Unix you
can get it (with support) from DEC.