[Info-vax] DECdirect, was: Re: BASIC compiler in the hobbyist distribution

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <mki0d4$42p$1 at pechter.eternal-september.org>,
	pechter at S20.pechter.dyndns.org (William Pechter) writes:
> In article <ct374iF5s1fU1 at mid.individual.net>,
> Bill Gunshannon <billg999 at cs.uofs.edu> wrote:
>>In article <f4200dcc-7a27-485d-96a1-9f6b2ffbc7e2 at googlegroups.com>,
>>	seasoned_geek <roland at logikalsolutions.com> writes:
>>> On Friday, May 29, 2015 at 11:44:51 AM UTC-5, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>>>  
>>>> Except for that one time when you go to them to buy something and they
>>>> say "No, we won't sell it to you."  I remember the incident well.....
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> Well if you had only used American Express instead of Visa....<Grin>
>>
>>Actually, it would have been Government PO.  But financing wasn't the
>>problem.  The name on the front of the box was.
>>
>>bill
>>
>>-- 
>>Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
>>billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
>>University of Scranton   |
>>Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>   
> 
> Had a similar problem when working with Eaton IMSD on a government project.
> I was the third party sysadmin/tech needing DEC support on an 11/750.
> We had a non-booting system  (no >>> even) and no RDC board.
> 
> If I called as the third party support we wouldn't get quick support, but I
> could call as the sysadmin on the government project.  But since there
> was no third party contract and I was the sysadmin I called in as the sysadmin.
> 
> They rolled out my former DEC coworker to the system site.  I inserted the
> RDC board and ran the microdiags for him.  He'd never done anything but 
> 11/780s at that time.   He brought the DEC gate array kit and the RDC and
> we fixed the box.
> 
> Some companies weren't getting any support from DEC since they were in direct
> competition on bidding the maintenance contracts.  Happened to me at TRW.
> They ran their own DEC training school and had their own (ugh) diags.
> 
> The DEC stuff was a much better diagnostic tool set for the DEC made hardware.
> (Non-DEC stuff was another issue).
> 
> When I worked third party for TRW the DEC diags were removed from the sites
> at end of contract (unlike xxdp+) and DEC was going to court for third party 
> illegal use of their proprietary code.
> 
> TRW and other maintenance vendors had to buy parts from OEMs, VARs and 
> resellers or strip whole systems for spare parts  at times since DEC may 
> have not made them available in a timely fashion.  
> 
> On government contacts sometimes third parties had the government folks 
> remain the contact with DEC maintenance as the owners of the hardware and 
> they would call in DEC support when they were desperate for a fix that
> the third party couldn't provide in a reasonable time.
> 
> Some of this was an absolute PITA.
> 
> Was this on a similar military contract.  (They may have blocked 
> DECdirect sales of parts to a third party they were competing with.)
> 
> This was an ugly war that started in the mid 80s as third party maintenance
> was eating into DEC heavily by underbidding them.  

Nothing that complex.  It was really quite simple.  The name on the front
was Terak.  They had bought and paid for one copy of UCSD-Pascal and shipped
it with every box that went out the door.  They had bought one copy of RT-11
and gave a copy to everyone who asked for it.  Until the lawsuit started
and they received the cease and desist order.

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>