[Info-vax] Out with Hurd, in with OpenVMS

[Michael Kraemer]

Neil Rieck schrieb:
> On Aug 16, 8:29 am, m.krae... at gsi.de (Michael Kraemer) wrote:
> 
>>
>>So who did lie?
>>The VP's to Olsen?
> 
> 
> Yes. Apparently their sales-channel thought they could make quick
> commissions by just doing more of the same. 

Or, more likely, the customers just wanted faster VAXen,
but not necessarily a monster like the VAX 9000.
The 4000 line might have satisfied the traditionalists
for a while, the FP hungry HPC crowd went RISC/Unix anyway.
Istr discussions even among DEC/VAX bigots why in the world
one would spend lots of money on the likes of VAX 6000/9000
when a VS 4000 could do the same - at a much lower price
and you could put one on each desk.

> Unlike people like Gordon
> Bell, these VPs were not computer people. Bell wrote that the computer
> industry goes through a major change every 10 years (or so) so the end
> of VAX was in site and DEC needed to do PRISM.

I don't believe in such general laws.
IBM's S/3x0 architecture for example exists since the 1960s,
and their POWER turned twenty this year, without major breaks.

> 
> But don't take my word for it. Anyone interested in this debate should
> really read:
> 1) "DEC is Dead, Long Live DEC"
> 2) "Showstopper! The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next
> Generation at Microsoft (which was recently re-published in 2009(

Such books might be fun reading,
but I would not take everything at face value.
Too subjective and too much personal involvement of the authors
or their informants.