[Info-vax] Info-vax Digest, Vol 78, Issue 28

[Dave Froble]

On 11/17/2019 8:57 AM, Jack Blake wrote:
> Dave Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>>> On 10/31/2019 10:45 PM, Kerry Main wrote:
>>>
>>>> They all laughed and one of them stated he could not remember when they had
>>>> a VAX HW problem.
>>>>
>>>> Good testament to the VAX HW, but not so good for new sales.
>>> And doesn't that sort of depend on whether you're the vendor, or, a
>>> customer?
>>>
>>> Then there was the AlphaStation 200 power supplies.  Dropped like flies.
>>>
>>> Getting 3 years out of today's PCs is very good luck.  And that's with
>>> HW in general being more robust.
>
> Can we dispel this myth?  DEC didn't fail because their hardware was too
> good, DEC failed because they didn't change with the times,

Well, yes, that was why they failed.  I'm not sure they could have 
changed, and still remain the DEC we all knew.

If I remember correctly, the CPU in a VAX 11/780 was 4 rather large 
boards.  It seems that at that time it took a sizable company to build 
computers, provide service, software, and all the other things DEC, IBM, 
and such provided.

Then along came the microprocessor.  Those 4 large boards on a small 
chip totally changed things.  This is what changed computing and 
computer manufacturing.

I remember such systems as PDP 11/70, VAX 780, and such starting at a 
quarter million dollars, and going up from there.  Did it really cost 
that much for the actual product?  If not counting R&D, and other such, 
no way did it cost near that much.  But DEC and such had significant 
expanses to support their products.  Field service was local everywhere, 
and their services were much in demand.  Every computer mfg, well, most, 
had their own software for their products.

With the microprocessor, anyone could build a computer.  I believe 
people like Michael Dell started in his garage.  If anything failed, 
just purchase another.  The nationwide field service organization became 
a real burden to maintain.  No longer were the very expensive computer 
sales available to support the mfgs extensive services.

Along came Microsoft, courtesy of IBM, which provided the OS and 
software that was formally provided by computer mfgs.

DEC was very top heavy, and when they attempted to downsize, the 
decisions were left to middle management, which was where the fat was, 
but they sure weren't going to cut their own jobs.  Instead, they cut 
out the people who might have kept things going.

DEC came out with the C-VAX, the N-VAX, and Alpha.  But they were still 
in the mentality of expensive products, relatively, and would not 
compete with lower cost systems.  They were still trying to support 
their massive overhead.  Wasn't going to happen.

> and ever
> company that has purchased the rights to what DEC made, which was good,
> has continued to fail for exactly that same reason.  It's almost as if
> it's a curse at this point.  Not that that will happen to the current
> VMS caretakers...

Who have the advantage of not selling HW.

> I'm probably what you would call a millenial, I'm a hobbyist who would
> very much like to turn my knowledge and experience of running VMS into a
> career, but a clear example of how stupid DEC was, it is virtually
> impossible for me to learn how anything works except to ask questions of
> people who already know, and all anyone can really tell me is how their
> own install works and how they've built things to work for them.  It's
> like trying to learn how Windows works by figuring out how other people
> use it.  Back in the day, I'd have learned from a local admin or I'd
> have had to pay to go to classes on it.  Those don't exist anymore.  I
> own a copy of every book ever published on VMS.  There aren't many.

I'll admit my learning was on the job, and over time.  Still, I did not 
find it hard to learn.

> DEC failed because they had the cloistered mindset of Massachusetts
> techies.  And they wondered why hippies thought tech people were
> exclusionary and probably evil.

It can be rather hard to change your stripes ....


-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc.      E-Mail: davef at tsoft-inc.com
DFE Ultralights, Inc.
170 Grimplin Road
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