[Info-vax] OT: Rob Short: Operating System Evolution

[John Wallace]

On Jan 6, 10:55 pm, "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilber... at comcast.net>
wrote:
> John Wallace wrote:
> > On Jan 6, 4:50 am, "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilber... at comcast.net>
> > wrote:
> >> Bob Koehler wrote:
> >>> In article <oe6dnbsExJlqqtzWnZ2dnUVZ_uCdn... at giganews.com>, "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilber... at comcast.net> writes:
> >>>> I wouldn't expect ANY word processor to be a huge success on VMS.  It's
> >>>> damned difficult to run a WYSIWYG processor on a system that natively
> >>>> can output only ASCII text.  You can run it on a workstation but I think
> >>>> it's a great deal cheaper to run it on a PC.
> >>>    Why in the world do you think VMS "can output only ASCII text"?  I've
> >>>    been using other data formats on VMS since 1980.
> >> Which tools in VMS (not layered products) output selectable fonts and
> >> selectable type sizes?  I can do a lot with TeX and LaTeX but that's not
> >> native VMS.
>
> > Let's assume that you consider DECwindows Motif not a layered product.
> > Is that OK?
>
> No, it's not OK!  It's a layered product, separately licensed and, of
> course, expensive!  If the license had not been included with my Alpha
> Station 200 I couldn't afford it!

"Separately licensed ... expensive"
"Included with my AlphaStation"

You want it both ways, best of luck with that.

In the real world, it was pretty much impossible for ordinary folks to
buy an AlphaStation without the "expensive"/"free" Motif licence
through normal channels, same as it's pretty much impossible today to
buy a mass-market PC without the "expensive"/"free" Windows licence (a
Windows licence which also doesn't get you any real applications - no
real WP, no real email, etc).

An AlphaStation would usually come bundled with a NAS150 client
licence, which would include Motif, DECnet, and TCP/IP. VMS ones also
included VMScluster client. Not bad value for money if it comes as
part of the system. Adding a NAS150 licence to a system that didn't
have one was a different story, but not relevant here.

Even with the price including an OS licence and a NAS150/Motif
licence, the AlphaStations were reasonably competitive with other
vendors' UNIX workstations, which at the time DEC HQ said were the
competition. PCs were allegedly still a different market segment (even
though the electronics inside the AlphaStations already had a great
deal in common with PCs, commonality which would increase as time went
by e.g. the AlphaStation 400 and then the PWS family shared hardware
as well as electronics).

Obviously history shows that UNIX workstations eventually didn't do
all that well either, but at the time, that wasn't the received wisdom
outside the box shifting market.