Why net.decus won't work

[Paul A. Vixie]

In article <196 at graffiti.UUCP> peter at graffiti.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes:
>Why not just go on using net.decus? I mean, apart from micros we don't
>even have 1 vendor-specific group, let alone 2! The volume of VMS articles
>on net.decus is small, and it's amusing watching vms types try to do
>elementary unixoid things.

It is sort of amusing, unless the place you work for only has VMS machines.
Then "doing elementary unixoid things" becomes a desperate struggle that
you fight every time you go to work...

Anyway, you raise a good point: net.decus is a group dedicated to DEC users;
why not use it?  Well: DECUS = Digital Equipment Corporation User's Society.
This group (net.decus) seems oriented more toward DECUS members and their
activities (large symposiums several times a year, mostly).  It is an unlikely
place to find technical information, and even if it were: VMS is not the only
operating system DEC supports.  Even for the VAX there's VaxELAN; for the
PDP-11 there are at least 10 different OS flavors.

A better substitute for net.vms would be fa.info-vax.  This is an ARPA
mailing list gatewayed both ways onto Usenet.  There are occasional postings
from Usenet people, but posting involves sending mail to info-vax at ucbvax,
which sometimes comes back with 99 lines of error messages.  Make that
"usually comes back..."

And besides, info-vax isn't really VMS specific either.

Perhaps we need a setup like net.micro.*:  net.????.{dg,dec,hp,...}.  Or
maybe a net.os.{aos,vms,rsts,mpe,...}.  You can argue that Usenet is for
Unix people, but that won't explain the popularity of net.micro.mac...

What net.vms seems targeted for is a Usenet version of fa.info-vax.  I
(and others) hope that someone will still gateway between net.vms and
INFO-VAX; this would just make posting much easier and more reliable
for Usenet people.

As I've already stated, I vote "YES" for net.vms.........
-- 

	Paul Vixie
	{decwrl dual pyramid}!greipa!paul