[rescue] Today's rescue

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Tue, 7 Sep 2004, Steve Hatle wrote:

> Responding to a posting from our local FreeCycle list, I went out at lunch
> today and came home with:
>
> "homer" - VAX 4000-705A

Ooooooh!  You Bastard!  That's a lovely system!  Really -really- nice
really fast deskside VAX.

> "marge" - VAXStation 4000-90

Augh!  And another one!  Just as fast, but tinier!

> Also an R215F expansion pedestal, and a stack of OpenVMS folders/CD-ROMs
> from 1996 through 2001.

Excellent!  You may have VMS as new as 7.2 or 7.3, then.

> I'm a total VAX noob; some googling shows these are QBUS/DSSI machines.

Are you near Austin?  I'd really love to have either the -705 or the
-90, should you decide you have too many. :)

> So- expect a large amount of questions when I get them unlimbered!
> <grin> Not sure if I'm ready to climb into VMS big-time; at least
> one will probably end up running *BSD assuming everything is supported.

Well, NetBSD should run on them quite well, but at least try VMS on one
of them.  My sole VMS box is a VAXstation 4000-60, and its sole purpose
right now is to teach me VMS.  It's been a fun adventure.

> Doing my part to save iron from the landfill,

You're a good man.  VAXen that nice should be run, not trashed.

-- 
Jonathan Patschke )
Elgin, TX        (  "Ma'am, I can do anything.  I own a game store."
USA               )             --Gord ( http://www.actsofgord.com )