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

[Michael Kraemer]

Richard B. Gilbert schrieb:
> seasoned_geek wrote:
> 

>>
>> Palmer was the mess that finally killed DEC
> 
> 
> I think that is a vast oversimplification.  DEC was a company out of 
> control!  There was a corporate "vision" of becoming the new IBM.

Which is kind of funny because DEC's success
was owed to *not* being like IBM.

> DEC could not or would not compete on price.  Purchasing departments 
> around the world could not see spending seven or eight times the price 
> of third party hardware for genuine DEC.

Correct.
VAX- and even DECstations were affordable only as "bare bones",
i.e. when RAM and disks were purchased from third parties.
I once listened to a DEC tech support guy who was very surprised
to find more than the absolute minimum (4 or 8MB) of original
DEC RAM inside one of our stations
("Nobody buys these things from DEC ..." ).

> 
> The world changed and DEC failed to change with it!
> 
> DEC killed DEC!

I don't know if DEC as a whole were to be blamed,
but it seems that at least the techies were out
of control.

> Palmer just made the funeral arrangements!

well, his job was to serve the share holders,
not the nerds.