Re: Re rant about virii on VMS...

[der Mouse <mouse () Rodents Montreal QC CA>]

> > > Antivirus scanners typically work by matching against patterns of
> > > known viruses.  For VMS that is the null set.
> > Hope you don't mind me saying this, but that's essentially a null
> > argument.

True.  Because VMS is so marginal in terms of userbase, it does not
attract the sort of anonymous attack that produces the well-known
Windows malware, so the lack of such attacks says nothing either way
about its security.

Now, VMS _is_ significantly more secure than Windows.  Our list can
even learn something from it; the use of descriptors for string
operations is an example (though an awkward one to apply if you're
writing in C).  A much more important one, I believe, is good interface
contracts, including particularly what interfaces do _not_ promise.

> And NOT all software "sucks", or has bugs.  Carefully built software
> will do what it is supposed to.

Any nontrivial piece of software has bugs.  VMS is no exception (though
I'd be willing to believe it has proportionately fewer bugs than most).
And VMS sucks in many ways, though they are mostly rather different
ways from the ways that Windows or the various Unices suck, and, like
any piece of software, its fans tend to see the ways in which it sucks
as unimportant (not surprising, as everyone will gravitate towards
software whose suckages are perceived as least important).

> Before ranting about them, learn some details about real, non-toy OSs
> and quit assuming that all OSs are like your toys...

Labeling other people's preferred OSes as "toys" will get you little
but marginalized.

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