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

[Phillip Helbig---undress to reply]

In article <i4o73f$l03$03$1 at news.t-online.com>, Michael Kraemer
<M.Kraemer at gsi.de> writes: 

> > Palmer is responsible for not fixing the price/competitiveness
> > sufficiently and quickly enough. 
> 
> By the time Palmer became boss this *was* fixed.
> Alpha hardware was roughly in sync with the competitors,
> in contrast to VAXen being overpriced by factors 3 to 6.

This is definitely true.  Back in the mid-1990s, I worked for a time at 
a university where we had about 150,000 marks to spend on computers.  
(We calculated DM 100 per MB RAM, so not as much bang for the buck as 
today.)  We had IBM RS/6000 up until then.  We got a machine each from 
DEC, IBM, HP, SUN and SGI and ran our own applications as benchmarks.  
We went for DEC.  DEC and HP were faster than the other three, and DEC 
had the better compilers.  With no pre-commitment to DEC, not much money 
and IBM in the house, there is no way we would have gone with DEC if the 
price wasn't right.