On Sat, 14 Feb 1998 sokolov@alpha.CES.CWRU.Edu wrote:
> Jacob Suter <jsuter@intrastar.net> wrote:

> > whats so fun about
> > telnet and ftp anyways?

>    I was expecting you to ask "what's so fun about VAXen anyways?" What are
> you doing on this list? This is a place for the people who greatly miss the
> golden times when they were paid to work on 780s.

[RANT]

I believe the nature of the list is in fact supposed to be the discussion
of VAX architecture port specific elements of the *NetBSD* operating
system.  A fair amount of deviation from the mailing list charter is
acceptable I'd imagine.  In general we tend to mostly address installation
and hardware support issues.  That's fine by me as it means we're making
the NetBSD/vax port more mainstream.

I also enjoy hearing first hand accounts of tales from the old days. 
Seeing those types of posts here doesn't bother me at all.  It's good to
know the history of our field as it lends us a truer perspective of the
rapid advancement current technology.  Additionally it gives us an
appreciation of computing's monumental accomplishments of the past, such
things that are now taken for granted.

The ultimate goal of this list is the functional advancement of VAX and
VAX related hardware through the use of the freely available NetBSD/vax
operating system.  That doesn't mean we always only stick to that,
tangetial topics add color and flavor to the discussions, but it certainly
means we don't undermine the goal of the list.  If one disagrees about the
purpose of the port-vax list being to advance the state of NetBSD/vax then
they probably shouldn't be participating in it. 

--

As for retrocomputing, I found your definition distasteful.  I'd define it
as a much broader thing. To me retrocomputing is the use of any
non-contemporary computer system which the user finds beneficial.  This
includes the use of VAXen as space heaters or end-tables in your
apartment. However, it is prefered that the machines are at least booted
up to an OS or controlling program.

-brian.
---
Brian "JARAI" Chase | http://world.std.com/~bdc/ | VAXZilla LIVES!!!