[Info-vax] In memoriam: 10 years since Alpha's passing away.

[glen herrmannsfeldt]

Richard B. Gilbert <rgilbert88 at comcast.net> wrote:
(snip on VMS manuals, that used to be discussing Alpha manuals)

> They are "public" ONLY in the sense that anyone who is willing to pay 
> several hundred dollars can buy a set.  If you buy a system; hardware 
> and software, you get a set of manuals, the "Blue, Orange, Gray or White 
> Wall".

> You want a second set?  H-P will sell you one.  It's not cheap!

How much for a VMS 4.x set?  Or version 5 or 6?  I suppose 1.0 would
be expensive, as it must be a collectors item by now.

>> At best you could expect a letter asking you to widthdraw the documents,
>> at which point, you could ask for official permission from HP to keep
>> them and they woudl likely give it to you. The only reason they would go
>> through this procedure is so that people can't claim that HP/Intel are
>> not protecting their intellectual property.

> H-P *Sells* those manuals.  The last time I looked, a VMS documentation 
> kit filled four or five feet of shelf space.  The last time I bought 
> one, I think I paid close to $2000 US.

But a lot of that is the cost of plastic and paper, right?

I know most IBM documentation is now online and free.  If you
want the paper versions, they will sell them to you.  Some are
pretty expensive, others much more reasonably priced.

I remember in 1976 the PDP-10 manuals were pretty expensive.
As I remember, in the $35 each range for the hardware manual
and system calls manual.  Maybe about $150 inflation adjusted.

-- glen