On 03/06/2013 07:29 AM, Jerome H. Fine wrote: I've mentioned this to one or two folks here privately, but now that it has come up...My mother is a journalist with Associated Press, and she recently took a new assignment in a different city. Their office has a VAX-4000 running VMS, handling some sort of database. They love it, and they have no plans to migrate away from it. It would be appreciated if a few interesting aspects concerning the system were shared so we could understand how such a mature system manages to compete. I suspect it's not trying to "compete", at least not any more than, say, the desks (not the desktops, but the DESKS) in the offices, etc. It's an appliance; it sits there and does its job. There's no valid reason to change it. There's an odd consumerist attitude that goes something like "oh, the manufacturer has introduced a new model, this one must somehow suck now, I'd better replace it!"...That attitude is common in the worlds of computers and cars, but not much else. If Great Neck (a common-in-USA manufacturer of cheap-but-usable hand tools) introduces a new model of hammer, I'm not going to throw my old one (probably twenty years old) and rush out to buy the new one. That would be stupid...and it's just as stupid with computers and cars. I'm pretty sure I'm preaching to the choir here...at least I really hope I am. ;) (a) When was the system first installed? I have no idea. She says she thinks it was a 4000-500, which would put it in the mid-1990s. (b) Approximately how long is the up-time between re-boots? Again I have no idea. (this is my mother's place of employment, 1200mi from here, not mine) Let's put it this way, though...it's likely that this machine is running VMS, and it's not at all unusual for VMS systems to have uptimes in the 5+ year range. If it didn't get those sorts of uptimes, it probably would've annoyed someone and gotten replaced by now. (c) Do they have any virus problems? (d) Have they ever been hacked into? ROFL!!! I haven't had a laugh this good on a long time. ;) Other information such as the physical details would also be interesting along with the number of users. Anything else your mother felt willing to share would provide the list members with good hard information. She's pretty busy in her new assignment, but I'm sure she can do some digging. I'd love to find out more myself. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA