Andy Goldstein on the New File System for OpenVMS v.9.0

OpenVMS is currently being ported to x86. Andy Goldstein, a developer of the OpenVMS file system, on why the new version of OpenVMS needs a new file system and what it is going to be like.

[AM-dnlk]

VMS was the best operating system that existed. It was way ahead of its time. I would love to see it return to be relevant and current with today's technology expectations.

[dwedeman]

I'm happy to hear Andy call it VMS (the Open is truly silent)

[LossyLossnitzer]

What I would like to see in this video series is a video that will help Unix Sys Admin the commands that do the same as unix a Rosetta stone video that would help in everyday situations like for example: cat might be type, vi might be edit, ifconfig you would need to be in tcpip etc. This works both was as I needed to show my OpenVMS sys admin that netstat existed on OpenVMS, but because he had never been on an OpenVMS course and is set in his ways (Sorry if you are reading this my Sys admin who is now learning Unix) he did not know the command existed. I do know there was a book that is a Rosetta stone for all popular operating systems, but who reads books and I think it is a bit out dated.

[moviestudioland]

I had no idea that VMS was still under development at HP? I used to write Device Drivers for VMS 6.X in Macro 32. It was not easy.

[moviestudioland]

Well VMS is not Dead. David Cutler basically ported the VMS Kernel structure to Windows NT 3.5.1 and then XP. So VMS is still alive in Windows 10 even.

[sammaniotes]

I remember the Digital TOPS-20 Operating System had an "UNDELETE" command and always wondered why VMS didn't. Then one day in 1998, I attended a DECUS Symposium in Los Angeles where I was able to ask Andy Goldstein my "UNDELETE" question. Andy provided me with an in-depth explanation as to how difficult it would be for the Files-11/RMS File System to be able to keep track of all the files that were marked for deletion and be recovered with the correct version number.

After listening to this video, I was brought back to my original question now that VMS has a 64-bit journaling file system - will the new version of VMS finally be able to have an "UNDELETE" command?

[VKFVAX]

Sounds good. Is it going to be called ODS-6? I've written two filesystems in my life, it's a lot of fun and quite a lot of work. Is this one extent based? Is the metadata and extent data going to be journaled? Good on you!

[LossyLossnitzer]

It is so difficult to find OpenVMS people or companies that support OpenVMS and with Itanium chip sets going EOL the need for companies to port to x86 is very important. One of the things I always find difficult to understand is the licensing process for all the things other operating systems have embedded in them. I do understand the difficulties you have educating the computing community for the need to use OpenVMS that is why I think you should make the hobbyist version available under Vitualbox as soon as possible in preparation for the full release. Note: I am a Unix person that has legacy OpenVMS systems/applications on HP i2s and i4s and think if x86 product is not released quickly as a virtual machine in AWS or Azure before the complete death of the HP i6 systems I face a problem with obtaining hardware which may be consumed by people running HP/UX. Systems managers that have application life cycles to consider have difficult decisions to make, I have seen many versions of Unix die in my time and I know that many love OpenVMS so it would be a shame. Thank you for sharing these videos and would like more educational videos available.

[bbuggediffy]

Why not make VMS available to everybody for free? If you don't, there will be NO VMS USERS left soon.