Your Computing Account: What Large Timesharing Systems Are Available?

Faculty/Staff

Faculty and staff are eligible for accounts on either Darkwing or Oregon, or both.

Darkwing. Darkwing is a large shared Sun Unix system running Solaris 2.7 (Sun's version of Unix). Darkwing is used for email, web browsing and publishing, and scientific/numeric applications.

Oregon. Oregon is a large Compaq system running OpenVMS/AXP. OpenVMS/AXP is a unique operating system that is not based on Unix; its commands are actually most reminiscent of MS DOS. It is the same operating system used on the university's administrative computer systems.

For most faculty and staff, either Darkwing or Oregon will work fine for routine email purposes and for serving typical web pages. Beyond that, system choice is primarily a matter of personal preference, as long as the software you want to use is installed on the system you pick (see the software chart below).

If you do establish accounts for yourself on both Darkwing and Oregon, please be sure to routinely check your email on both systems, or forward your email from your less preferred account to your favorite account. Passwords and files are not shared between Darkwing and Oregon.

Undergraduate Students [back to top]

Undergraduate student accounts are automatically created on Gladstone. Gladstone is a large Sun Solaris system and, like Darkwing, it runs Solaris 2.7, Sun's version of Unix.

Gladstone accounts can be used for electronic mail and serving personal web pages. We also offer an expanded range of academic software on Gladstone, such as SAS and Mathematica.

Undergraduate students can also authorize themselves for an Oregon account if they prefer OpenVMS over Unix, or if they simply want a second account to use as a backup.

Graduate Students [back to top]

Graduate students automatically have accounts created for them on Darkwing; however, if they wish, they can also authorize themselves for accounts on Gladstone and Oregon.

Other Systems [back to top]

You may also see some other systems mentioned from time to time:

Daisy. Daisy is a large Compaq administrative system running OpenVMS/AXP. The primary application running on Daisy is BANNER, an administrative application environment based on Oracle, a popular large system database.
Daisy shares disk, printers, and some other resources with Oregon, but access to it is restricted to staff members who are performing administrative tasks like grade processing and payroll.

What About NT or Novell? [back to top]

The Computing Center does not currently provide public accounts on any NT- or Novell-based system.

What About Dialin Access? [back to top]

Your account on Oregon, Darkwing or Gladstone enables you to dial in from off campus to the university's modem pool (see "What About Dialing In From Off-Campus?" on page 2.) The modem number for accessing UOnet, the campus network, is 225-2200.

Your modem access is for casual use--no more than a few hours a day on average. If you need dedicated or near-dedicated network access, however, you will want to contact a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP). One list of ISPs is available at http://www.thelist.com/

What About Special Accounts for Classes and Departments? [back to top]

If you're teaching an undergraduate class and your students need to access software available only on Darkwing, temporary accounts can be created for their use. For more information, contact Connie French at 346-1738.

If you're a department or university-recognized institute, lab, or organization, you can arrange for a departmental account. Such accounts are offered solely to provide an authoritative and unchanging home for departmental web pages and official departmental email, and must be officially requested by the department head or institutional administrator.

Acceptable Use. Finally, please note that all use of university computing resources is subject to the university's Acceptable Use Policy, which is available in printed format from the Computing Center Documents Room (175 Grayson Hall), or online at http://cc.uoregon.edu/policy/

Large Systems Consulting Help [back to top]

If you have any questions about using the UO's large timesharing computers, contact the large systems consulting group in Rooms 225-239 Computing Center (346-1758). Consultants can help with questions about email, multimedia delivery, scientific and CGI programming, and web page development.

For more information about these services, see http://cc.uoregon.edu/unixvmsconsulting.html

Software on Oregon and Darkwing [back to top]