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

[Richard B. Gilbert]

Bob Koehler wrote:
> In article <i4monp$jeq$2 at online.de>, helbig at astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de (Phillip Helbig---undress to reply) writes:
>> I think what hurt DEC the most was the move to unix, which was mainly 
>> down to DEC not marketing VMS strongly enough, in particularly not 
>> taking steps to stop the move away from VMS in academia.  Of course, 
>> academia itself doesn't make a profit, but most people don't stay in 
>> academia and later decide what to buy.
> 
>    The move to UNIX came at great pain when UNIX was running on RISC,
>    making VMS on VAX not price/performance competitive.  The move
>    from VAX to Alpha came after all those customers underwent all that
>    pain, and did not give them reason to go back to VMS.
>

ISTR that the new RISC machines were regarded as both faster and 
cheaper.  That's a tough combination to beat!

>    I knew a lot of people who crunched numbers, and notes when the
>    VAX 9000 came out at about $1,000,000 it was performance competitive
>    with $40,000 RISC workstations.
>