Somewhere in this thread there was mention of a binary 'X' load through the 
console serial port. It was provided on the 11/730, 11/750 etc and might 
provide an initial boot from an IBM PC or better.

> Since (IMHO) a large part of the attraction of NetBSD/vax >is nostalgia
> value... 

I hope to use NetBSD/VAX for the base of a Free-Net node, DZ-11s 
are much more civilized than COM1: ... COM2: ... Oops out of 
interrupts. This isn't nostalgia, its protecting ones sanity.

> BTW, is there any good information out there for people interested 
> in getting a home vax? A list of the various models, their relative 
> speeds and features, and approx current value? I've browsed 
> _PROCESSOR_ and the like, but without knowing the obscure DEC part 
> numbers it's not much help.

I haven't seen a document that has what you really need to select a home
system. I would suggest selection order would be cost, power requirements
(single phase/3-phase) plus cooling requirements, physical size
(Vax-11/782/Desktop), options (disk size etc), speed. The UseNet
VMS, DEC and Folklore.computers areas maybe more appropriate for this
discussion. My experience is limited to an 11/750 at home, it was the
machine I could afford to buy. 

Regards,
Garry Page