Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!mintaka!bloom-beacon!deccrl!news.crl.dec.com!nntpd.lkg.dec.com!alien.enet.dec.com!mcculley From: mcculley@alien.enet.dec.com Newsgroups: comp.realtime Subject: Re: RSX -- one of the best? Message-ID: <22847@shlump.lkg.dec.com> Date: 22 May 91 19:02:16 GMT Sender: newsdaemon@shlump.lkg.dec.com Distribution: comp.realtime Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Lines: 38 In article , kenw@skyler.arc.ab.ca (Ken Wallewein) writes... > > Back when I worked with RSX, my impression was that it was one of the >best real-time OSs available. It doesn't seem to have been mentioned here >much lately. Would anybody mind filling me in on why? > >/kenw Boy, I could discuss this ad nauseum - but that topic tends to have such an effect on me anyway! :-) There are lots of specific factors, but I think they all add up to the fact that a few years ago PDP-11 hardware and software enhancements were seen as less strategic to Digital than other activities. So the business was managed conservatively to promote profitability, rather than aggressively to promote growth. Whether that was a good (or the right) decision or not probably depends on your perspective and the yardsticks you use to measure it. I know that the PDP-11 and RSX business is still producing very considerable revenues for Digital. I also know that there is very little new applications development occuring in this space, which probably accounts for the lack of discussion in this group. Besides, I suspect that the Internet community shares with Digital the trait that I consider the one single biggest factor in the de-emphasis of PDPs: it's what I call "technological chauvinism". The newest technological vogue is by definition the best stuff, right? We all know that the state of the art is constantly advancing so anything old must not be as good as newer stuff... So what if it does the job as well (or better) and more cost-effectively? Enough said, I don't want to get onto that soapbox. We're still around, quietly doing the same job that PDPs and RSX have done for two decades or so. - Bruce McCulley RSX Software Engineering Group Digital Equipment Corporation Nashua, New Hampshire