[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 119 bytes --] I have an opportunity to buy a DEC AlphaServer. Is there a version of Unix which will run on this? Paul *Paul Riley* [-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 491 bytes --]
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 389 bytes --] Digital Unix / Tru64 >= 4.x (I'd have to check, might be 4.0A), NetBSD, OpenBSD, Linux (e.g. Debian) Awesome machine, just a warning (in case you are buying it blindly), it's huge. On Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 8:28 PM Paul Riley <paul@rileyriot.com> wrote: > I have an opportunity to buy a DEC AlphaServer. Is there a version of Unix > which will run on this? > > Paul > > *Paul Riley* > > [-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 1017 bytes --]
>> I have an opportunity to buy a DEC AlphaServer. Is there a version of Unix >> which will run on this? There are several Debian Alpha ISO images available: http://archive.debian.org/debian/dists/etch/main/installer-alpha https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/archive/5.0.10/alpha/iso-cd https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/2020-08-19/ https://wiki.qemu.org/Documentation/Platforms/Alpha https://www.debian.org/ports/alpha/ https://www.debian.org/releases/woody/alpha And Gentoo Linux: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Alpha/FAQ There is also NetBSD: https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-9.0/alpha And OpenBSD: http://www.openbsd.org/alpha.html And FreeBSD: https://www.freebsd.org/releases/6.0R/hardware-alpha.html We ran DEC OSF/1 until the power supplies on our several Alpha systems died, but it had an annual license fee, and the O/S shutdown when the license expired. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Nelson H. F. Beebe Tel: +1 801 581 5254 - - University of Utah FAX: +1 801 581 4148 - - Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB Internet e-mail: beebe@math.utah.edu - - 155 S 1400 E RM 233 beebe@acm.org beebe@computer.org - - Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/ - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> On Sep 18, 2020, at 8:26 PM, Paul Riley <paul@rileyriot.com> wrote:
>
> I have an opportunity to buy a DEC AlphaServer. Is there a version of Unix which will run on this?
Plenty: Digital Unix, NetBSD, or Linux all come to mind.
But I mean, those are kinda boring because they’re Unix which you can run on anything (I mean, sorry, TUHS, but…it’s not like we didn’t win the ubiquity wars). If you have an Alpha, run OpenVMS! VSI’s hobbyist license program is supplying licenses now.
Adam
On 9/18/2020 8:26 PM, Paul Riley wrote:
> I have an opportunity to buy a DEC AlphaServer. Is there a version of
> Unix which will run on this?
Absolutely! The CS Dept. at UC Berkeley got some of the first Alphas
released by DEC back in the 90s (I don't remember the exact dates).
We ran OSF/1 (a.k.a. Digital Unix, a.k.a other names). In fact, what
became PostgreSQL was developed on Alphas running that Unix.
Jon
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2023 bytes --] Tru64 will give you the best experience of the time, allow you to use the GEM compilers, TruClusters, and all of hte interesting layered products. The issue is license managers as Nelson says, but Internet search is your friend *i.e.* different unlimited time styles license PAKs for Tru64 have been reported to have been seen in the wild, however YMMV. On Sat, Sep 19, 2020 at 12:27 AM Nelson H. F. Beebe <beebe@math.utah.edu> wrote: > >> I have an opportunity to buy a DEC AlphaServer. Is there a version of > Unix > >> which will run on this? > > There are several Debian Alpha ISO images available: > > http://archive.debian.org/debian/dists/etch/main/installer-alpha > https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/archive/5.0.10/alpha/iso-cd > https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/2020-08-19/ > https://wiki.qemu.org/Documentation/Platforms/Alpha > https://www.debian.org/ports/alpha/ > https://www.debian.org/releases/woody/alpha > > And Gentoo Linux: > > https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Alpha/FAQ > > There is also NetBSD: > > https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-9.0/alpha > > And OpenBSD: > > http://www.openbsd.org/alpha.html > > And FreeBSD: > > https://www.freebsd.org/releases/6.0R/hardware-alpha.html > > We ran DEC OSF/1 until the power supplies on our several Alpha systems > died, but it had an annual license fee, and the O/S shutdown when the > license expired. > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > - Nelson H. F. Beebe Tel: +1 801 581 5254 > - > - University of Utah FAX: +1 801 581 4148 > - > - Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB Internet e-mail: > beebe@math.utah.edu - > - 155 S 1400 E RM 233 beebe@acm.org > beebe@computer.org - > - Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA URL: > http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/ - > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > [-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 3849 bytes --]
Nelson H. F. Beebe <beebe@math.utah.edu> wrote: > We ran DEC OSF/1 until the power supplies on our several Alpha systems > died, but it had an annual license fee, and the O/S shutdown when the > license expired. Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com> wrote: > The issue is license managers as Nelson says, but Internet search is your > friend *i.e.* different unlimited time styles license PAKs for Tru64 have > been reported to have been seen in the wild, however YMMV. License managers now count as DRM, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (though no such laws had been passed when the license managers were first created). So: is it worth breaking the law in many countries, to maintain a historical curiosity? Personally, I would throw DRM-encrusted software, and the hardware that is dependent on it, into the dustbin of history. Its creators had fair warning that they were making their products unusable after they stopped caring to maintain them. They didn't care about their place in history, nor about their users. They did it anyway, for short-term profit and to harass those people foolish enough to be their customers. Their memes should not be passed to future generations. As Sir Walter Scott suggested in another context, they "doubly dying, shall go down, to the vile dust, from whence [they] sprung, unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung". John
I worked at a Digital-sponsored lab in Australia from the early 90’s. DEC offered us a great deal on DEC 3000-era workstations, replacing all our Ultrix DECstations in (I think) 1994.
At that point, very little of the freely available software would build cleanly for 64 bit platforms. Even the stuff with Cray support often didn’t work with OSF/1’s 32 bit int/64 bit long model.
And pthreads was a mess, with all the Unix-like systems having implementations of different drafts that were incompatible.
After a while Digital started redistributing a “freeware” collection of suitably patched versions to bootstrap everyone’s workflows.
d
> On 19 Sep 2020, at 14:34, Jon Forrest <nobozo@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>> On 9/18/2020 8:26 PM, Paul Riley wrote:
>> I have an opportunity to buy a DEC AlphaServer. Is there a version of Unix which will run on this?
>
> Absolutely! The CS Dept. at UC Berkeley got some of the first Alphas
> released by DEC back in the 90s (I don't remember the exact dates).
> We ran OSF/1 (a.k.a. Digital Unix, a.k.a other names). In fact, what
> became PostgreSQL was developed on Alphas running that Unix.
>
> Jon
>
You're a bit harsh on the developers but I think in most cases it was the marketing/finance part of companies which decided on such mundane matters as licensing. My 2-1/2 cents. Cheers, uncle rubl >Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2020 12:42:39 -0700 >From: John Gilmore <gnu@toad.com> >To: Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com> >Cc: "Nelson H. F. Beebe" <beebe@math.utah.edu>, tuhs > <tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org> >Subject: Re: [TUHS] Unix on DEC AlphaServer 4000 >Message-ID: <32401.1600544559@hop.toad.com> ... snip ... >License managers now count as DRM, under the Digital Millennium >Copyright Act (though no such laws had been passed when the license >managers were first created). So: is it worth breaking the law in many >countries, to maintain a historical curiosity? >Personally, I would throw DRM-encrusted software, and the hardware that >is dependent on it, into the dustbin of history. Its creators had fair. >warning that they were making their products unusable after they stopped >caring to maintain them. They didn't care about their place in history, >nor about their users. They did it anyway, for short-term profit and to >harass those people foolish enough to be their customers. Their memes >should not be passed to future generations. As Sir Walter Scott >suggested in another context, they "doubly dying, shall go down, to the. >vile dust, from whence [they] sprung, unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung". John