I was interested to see the summary of "Dec abandoning DU for NT?". A
related question: where exactly is the 64 bit Linux/Alpha project going?
Dec Engineers (especially Jon Hall, maddog) have said in print things like
"there is no reason why Linux shouldn't run as fast as Dec Unix" and "we
see Linux as being a product for sites with a low budget" and "in looking
for another OS for the Alpha, we considered porting Windows 95 and then
settled on Linux." I see the Decus Linux people getting good support from
Dec, and I personally know of quite a few Dec techies who have been bitten
by the bug. Leaving aside religious wars, and questions of degree, and
philosophy and support, it is probably true to say that Dec Unix and Linux
are in the same _class_ of product. Broad picture here, looking at server
capacities rather than you-beaut multimedia workstations.
Despite this, however, I've never seen any official marketing stuff from
Dec acknowledging Linux - there must be a reason. I wonder if the
marketing people are confused? Or maybe if they are just waiting to see
if it really lives up to its promise? Or??
To be focussed, can anyone say to what extent the following is true:
"Dec have four operating systems in development, viz Dec Unix, NT, VMS
and Linux. There is no suggestion that support for any of these be
dropped, although VMS is leaning towards being supported rather than
actively developed. Linux is a special case, since most of the
development happens outside Digital, with a lot of the Alpha-specific
work being done by Dec engineers."
--
Dan Shearer email: Dan.Shearer_at_UniSA.edu.au
Information Technology Unit Phone: +61 8 302 3479
University of South Australia Fax : +61 8 302 3385
Received on Wed Jan 24 1996 - 14:48:04 NZDT