[Info-vax] Unix on A DEC Vax?

[Bob Koehler]

In article <kde836$tge$2 at speranza.aioe.org>, Wilm Boerhout <wboerhout-remove at this-gmail.com> writes:
> 
> The past few years we've replaced systems that control (e.g.) warehouse 
> systems. The warehouse hardware (cranes, belts etc. ) have a long 
> lifespan. The VAXes and Alpha's (and the occasional PDP-11) are sturdy, 
> but maintenance is very expensive and uncertain. Hardware replacement 
> and emulation never, I repeat, never fails.

   Guess again.  I know a shop which just recently, or is now, retiring
   a VAX 11/785.  The cost of keeping the 785 was negligible.  It was
   powered off most of the time, under third party maintenance that
   was almost never called, and parts were cheap.  It operated as a front 
   end to a much more expensive system, and getting a replacement to talk
   to the rest of the system would have been prohibitively expensive.