[Info-vax] The Doom of VAX VMS Hobbyist Licenses?

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 7/21/20 4:56 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 7/21/2020 2:36 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> On 7/21/20 1:41 PM, Andy Burns wrote:
>>> rljenkin at gmail.com wrote:
>>>
>>>> Happy to hear any and all options.
>>>
>>> Here's my opinion ... it's amazing how many times people can have the
>>> same discussion of VAX hobbyist systems :-)
>>
>> What's truly amazing is how this technology was abandoned and yet
>> after all this time there are still people using it.  And enjoying
>> the experience.
>>
>> bill
>>
> 
> Abandoned ?????
> 
> I don't see it that way.

Maybe a poor choice of words.  It's inventor and owner basically just
dumped it in favor of RISC, like so many others.  But I am one who still 
thinks that the VAX and, yes, the PDP-11 could have continued to develop
and moved forward.  :-)

> 
> Regardless, when the C-VAX CPU was introduced was the time for DEC to 
> change directions.  I believe that was before the IBM PC introduction, 
> but, I could be wrong.  Yeah, hindsight is usually rather good. >
> If DEC had introduced low cost computers, using VMS as the OS, and 
> pursued the low cost market, perhaps we would not have Microsoft, Intel, 
> and a few others.

Intel and Microsoft did not gain their position based on technical
superiority.  Had much mnore to do with dubious business practices.
But history is being rewritten to cover all that up so people will
continue to believe things like the PDP-11 and VAX were junk.

> 
> The dinosaurs in charge were still thinking about replacing IBM, using 
> the hugely successful VAX 9000 to turn large piles of money into small 
> piles of money, and wondering why anyone would want a computer in their 
> home.
> 
> Wasn't abandoned, it was frittered away.
> 

Well, I meant abandoned in the sense of totally in house.  No outsider
came along to kill VAX.  DEC was more than happy to do it themselves
when they jumped on the RISC bandwagon.

bill