Organization

I have organized this book in roughly the same order that Baldwin laid out the OpenVMS System Management Guide; however, mine is written in a higher level of detail. Since this may be the reader's first exposure to OpenVMS, I start my book with a history of Digital Equipment Corporation, Compaq Computer Corporation, and Hewlett-Packard, the three companies that have supported the OpenVMS operating system.

I also thought a brief introduction to the VAX and Alpha hardware architecture and the history of both computers would helpful since OpenVMS is intertwined with the hardware hosts. Incidentally, some versions of UNIX will run on both the VAX and the Alpha hardware. There is an Alpha version of Linux available and Windows NT was supported on the Alpha at one time.

The reader will find a rather unusual feature in the Appendices. As I mentioned, since this may be the reader's first exposure to OpenVMS, I decided to include excerpts of five OpenVMS-related Digital Press publications - each one is about ten pages long. This is not blatant advertising but proof that OpenVMS is supported outside Compaq/HP corporate umbrella and that helpful books beyond the company manuals are available.

I included these five so that you may get a flavor for the breadth, style and content of these other publications. Notice, that I did not simply include Chapter 1 from each book. Rather I carefully selected a chapter that represented the subject of the particular book so the you might get a better idea of the author's level of detail. Unfortunately these books are not available at your local bookstore so you can not run out and look them over. However, you can find them at the online bookstores and at www.bhusa.com/digitalpress.