Ultrix/32 & VMS Summary

[G.Pavlov]

In article <18621 at adm.BRL.MIL>, senetza%vp.uleth.adhocnet.ca%UNCAEDU.BITNET at CORNELLC.CIT.CORNELL writes:
> Here's a summary of what was sent regarding VMS and Ultrix/32...
> 
> From: Ray Curci (scri) <curci at stat.stat.fsu.edu>
> 
> 1. The only way you can have file transfer and remote login is to buy
>    DECNET for your vms system and DECNET/ULTRIX for your ultrix system.
> 
     Not true.  One can also obtain TCP/IP for VMS.  I would suggest this 
     course. DECNET isn't ideal under ULTRIX and TCP/IP would allow easier
     integration of non-DEC systems.

> 2. Most systems today are UNIX-based, but most DEC people are VMS-based.
>    I have tried to get ultrix questions answered by their technical
>    support people only to find out that the vast majority of them have
>    are well versed in VMS, but UNIX illiterate.
> 
     That is my experience with the local hardware people.  But we have found
     software support to be decent.  If you are calling software support and
     encounter VMS people, you are calling the wrong place.  VMS and ULTRIX
     are supported by different offices.

> 
> 5. I help manager (1) VAX 8700, (1)11/780, (2)3500s, (25)VS2000s, (1)uVAXII
>    under VMS and (2)VS2000s and (1)11/780 under Ultrix.  We also have about
>    15 Sun3s some Iriss, MacIIs, etc.  The ultrix has more bugs than any other
>    Unix implementation I have seen.  
> 
     We have fewer machines but as great a variety of vendors.  Our own exper-
     ience does not support the above assertion.  I would tend to the opposite,
     that Ultrix is "cleaner" than average.  One problem that relates to this, 
     tho, is that the documentation is well below average.

>    If you stick with the more standard UNIX machines that
>    have TELNET, FTP, SMTP, NFS, etc., you can minx and match systems from
>    SUN, HP, IRIS, Apollo, and (in theory only) DEC.

     Which of the above is missing from ULTRIX ??  As far as I know, we use 
     all of them on our ULTRIX machines, which are "mixed and matched" with
     other vendors' systems.

> 6. In my opinion, VMS is dying.
> 
     Maybe.  But the funeral will be years in coming.

     greg pavlov, (not a DEC fan by any means), fstrf, amherst, ny