[Info-vax] RealWorldTech on Poulson

[Phillip Helbig---undress to reply]

In article <tgqQp.9151$T85.9132 at newsfe19.ams2>, ChrisQ
<meru at devnull.com> writes: 

> I got hold of my first Alpha, a 3000/400 sometime in the early 90's and
> whatever the benchmarks say, it was without doubt the fastest machine
> I had ever seen at the time. Talking about interactive and compile 
> performance.
> Istr, it was running osf/1 version 1 or 2.

Same here.  I have bought (with my own money) one DEC machine new in my
life, an ALPHAstation 255/233.  At the time, IIRC it was the fastest 
workstation in the world.

> Don't want to get back into the old thread, but Alpha was arguably one 
> of the
> best supported in software and os terms at it's peak, with performance to
> match. Yet another example of politics and lies winning out over technical
> excellence.

Whatever killed ALPHA, lack of quality certainly wasn't part of it
(unless you count lack of quality on the account of management).

Shouldn't the UN be able to put ALPHA and VMS under some sort of 
protection as part of some World Cultural Heritage or something?