[Info-vax] Whither VMS?

[P. Sture]

In article <x8udnZLHk-ZvNFLXnZ2dnUVZ_hKdnZ2d at earthlink.com>,
 "John Reagan" <johnrreagan at earthlink.net> wrote:

> "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilbert88 at comcast.net> wrote in message 
> news:saWdnZSt69vbOlLXnZ2dnUVZ_h-dnZ2d at giganews.com...
> 
> > Back in the mid 1980s a Fortran compiler for a VAX 11/750 listed for 
> > something like $5000 AFTER educational discount!
> >
> You didn't have the right salesman or didn't buy enough hardware.  :)
> 
> During that time (well, almost all of the time), compilers were deeply 
> discounted over list price.  

I wish someone had told me ;-)

> During various meetings discussion revenue, I 
> seem to recall the "average" discount for the compilers was in the 90% 
> range.  It actually made it challenge to do budgets since how do you 
> convince the company to keep paying folks me like when the apparent revenue 
> looked very low.  The hardware/sales leverage was difficult to quantify (and 
> probably still is).
> 

I was in a similar position in the early 1980s, where software was 
heavily discounted to "shift tin".  The side effects wern't limited to 
justifying the cost of software folks. The sales droids weren't very 
motivated to sell the software, which in turn didn't give it the market 
penetration it could have had.  I suppose we're back to the stealth 
marketing theme here :-(

-- 
Paul Sture