Post #2049276
2026-03-17 08:30 UTC
@fergycool Our big lesson here is that the best time to buy old computers and parts is at the moment of opportunity! It's not like they're making them any more.
A VAX would have been *sweet*. Did you ever run VMS? I haven't used it personally, but at my first job they had one running for years to support a client that just didn't want to upgrade. We even had an LA120 around into the 2000s.
Replies (2)
-
@fergycool@mastodon.social 2026-03-17 09:04
@mroach Yes. During my Ph.D. (molecular biology) I accessed an old Vax/VMS to run some bioinformatics software (for DNA sequence analysis). Generally just via telnet although every now and again I got access to the single XWindows client in the entire dept! Years later I ended up working for the company that developed that software but they'd dropped VMS support by then (just Linux, Tru64 and IRIX).
-
@fergycool@mastodon.social 2026-03-17 09:05
@mroach ..and for buying the hardware the best time was to have never thrown it away, but the second best time is to acquire them now :-)