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

[johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk]

On Saturday, 25 July 2020 14:50:51 UTC+1, Scott Dorsey  wrote:
> Dave Froble  <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
> >
> >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.
> 
> DEC did introduce low cost computers, like the Rainbow.  And they had
> absolutely no idea that the microcomputer market was totally different
> than the minicomputer market and absolutely no idea how to sell them.
> 
> Not only that, DEC introduced several different low cost systems that
> took market share away from one another and totally killed whatever 
> economies of scale might have made them profitable.
> 
> I miss the Decmate II though.
> --scott
> -- 
> "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."



DEC eventually introduced low cost (for DEC) computers e.g. 
the AlphaStation 400 (same chassis as the equivalent x86 box, 
different duaghtercard with different processor. There was 
even an alleged upgrade path from the x86 to the Alpha). If I 
remember rightly, the AlphaStation 400 was reasonably widely
used in the UK for medium-scale SCADA systems and such.

Same goes for the Personal Workstation family some time 
later. Enclosure and mainboard largely common between the 
Alpha versions and the x86 version, choice of Alpha or x86
depending on "industry standard" NLX-format daughtercard.
Except NLX wasn't really industry standard as Intel didn't 
give Dell sufficient motivation ($$$$?) to use it. Hey ho.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLX_(motherboard_form_factor)