<operating system> (VMS) DEC's proprietary operating
system originally produced for its VAX minicomputer.
VMS V1 was released in August 1978. VMS was renamed "OpenVMS"
around version 5.5. The first version of VMS on DEC Alpha
was known as OpenVMS for AXP V1.0, and the correct way to
refer to the operating system now is OpenVMS for VAX or
OpenVMS for Alpha. The renaming also signified the fact that
the X/Open consortium had certified OpenVMS as having a high
support for POSIX standards.
VMS is one of the most secure operating systems on the market
(making it popular in financial institutions). It currently
(October 1997) has the best clustering capability (both
number and distance) and is very scalable with binaries
portable from small desktop workstations up to huge
mainframes.
Many Unix fans generously concede that VMS would probably be
the hacker's favourite commercial OS if Unix didn't exist;
though true, this makes VMS fans furious.
FAQ.
Usenet newsgroup: comp.os.vms.
[How does its performance compare with other OSes?]
(1999-06-03)
Nearby terms:
Virtual Machine/System Product « Virtual Machine/XA « virtual memory « Virtual Memory System » virtual path » virtual point of presence » virtual PoP
