[Info-vax] VMS survivability

[bill]

On 2/19/2023 3:17 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> 
> One might ask if VMS would have done so well if it hadn't come with the Vax.

Time to trot out one of my favorite anecdotes.

Working on a RFP for a mini-computer.  My employer was offering
A Prime 50-Series.  Only competitor was DEC offering an as yet
non-existent VAX Model.  RFP required a benchmark.  We showed up
with several boxes of green-bar with results.  DEC showed up with
and envelope containing a letter that stated: "Here is what it
would do if we actually had one to test."  The person driving the
bus was an Astronomy Professor.  He closed the meeting with the
statement I don't care who wins as long as it says VAX on the front.
We withdrew.  He got his VAX.  Well, a smaller slower VAX than what
he wanted but they promised him the better one in a year or so.
The best part of it was he got all the Astronomy programs he wanted
to run from Kitt's Peak Observatory.  They were all for BSD.  :-)

But the point is it was a VAX he wanted, no necessarily VMS.  I
expect al lot of the early VMS sites started that way and then just
grew to be stuck on VMS.

bill