[Info-vax] Dave Cutler, Prism, DEC, Microsoft, etc.

[Neil Rieck]

Anyone who owns a copy of the book "DEC is Dead, Long Live DEC" should
reread it from the middle to the end.

Although this book contains lots of technical info about poor
decisions (introducing three PCs, switching to MIPS without first
checking the truthfulness of their claims, deciding to complete
VAX-9000, trying to directly take on IBM), it contains some other
stuff like this:

Ken Olsen had an inner circle of friends who would help keep Ken
grounded. One person was Gordon Bell who had the technical knowledge
to trump arguments from other VPs. Bell had a heart-attack in 1983 so
decided to leave DEC. The other person was General Georges Doriot (an
original investor) who was a mentor to Ken until Doriot's death in
1987.

quote: Once Doriot died, it became "Olsen's Board"

Be sure to read Appendix-E titled "What Happened? A Postscript"
written by Gordon Bell. In my opinion, this contains contains the best
postmortem of DEC.

Neil Rieck
Kitchener / Waterloo / Cambridge,
Ontario, Canada.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/