[Info-vax] 100+ Alphaserver DS10s incoming and will be cheap

[John Dallman]

In article <dMydnTbPKLcBSMz5nZ2dnZfqnPednZ2d at supernews.com>,
dturner at islandco.com (David Turner) wrote:

> The DS15s are being scooped up globally by HPE for their major 
> customer, DOW Chemicals.

Had a vaguely similar case about 2005. We had a bunch of HP9000 systems
(PA-RISC running HP-UX) that were useful for software testing: they
trapped on various conditions more reliably than other platforms. The UK
dealer who'd been supplying their maintenance and knew what we had
offered to swap them 1:1 for faster models, free of charge, fully
reconditioned, with five years of maintenance thrown in. 

Obviously, this looked too good a deal. What was the catch? He insisted
there wasn't one, but was vague about why he was doing it. We gradually
got information about who he was going to sell them to. I called them up
and asked for the IT department. "We don't have one any more, IBM do it
all."

It emerged they sold big industrial HVAC systems that used HP9000s as
controllers. IBM knew nothing about those machines, and would pay very
highly for ones of the right model. They were all very compatible, but
IBM were not putting any resources into finding that out. 

John