Posted on 04/03/2008 7:49:14 AM PDT by pabianice
In June, 1998, Digital Equipment Corporation was acquired by Compaq computer after a 41 year run (HP subsequently bought what was left of the corpse from Compaq in 2002). At its height, DEC was the largest employer in New England with a total world-wide workforce in excess of 140,000. A pioneer in the minicomputer, its founder, Kenneth Olsen, failed utterly to see the world abandon the mini for the PC, saying, "No one wants a computer on their desk." A MIT-educated engineer, Olsen had a contempt for marketing, working, instead, to build devices that would sell themselves through their features.
From the mid-1980s until its demise, DEC did pretty much all the wrong things as it tried to keep the mini dominant in the industry. DEC was mortally wounded during this period by the hiring of a legion of "managers" who knew nothing about computers and were corrupt, incompetent, and, in some cases, arguably just plain nuts.
What follows is the blow-by-blow account by one DECie of what transpired when a simple one-page article was to be produced and published in an internal DEC magazine. I am told the names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty alike. A cautionary tale of how even the best and most profitable businesses fail, and one striking example of why many American businesses are moving off-shore.
Vax 11/780’s with a cluster running VMS or Unix is a screamer. I programmed on one of each set up for 2 years in the 80’s. I would love to have one to play on. I had a guy at another company tell me once a few years ago they had one torn down in a corner and he said I could probably get it cheap or for nothing but I was unable to follow up at the time.
The DEC was stacked against them in the long run...
I’m sure everyone is going to say they worked at a company like that. I know I did.
I didn’t work there, but had many friends who did, and the stories they’d tell about meetings and getting things done and the myriad of hoops to jump thru again and again were entertaining, but you could see the frustration in their eyes as they told them. I see some of that in dealing with a certain Gov’t entity...
My alma mater used a VAXcluster when I was there (’84-’87) for student work; an 8600 (I think?), 11/785, and 11/780. I was a student operator on the beasts and always liked VMS because it was very easy to use. We did everything on it for programming classes (COBOL, FORTRAN, Pascal, etc.) except for the IBM 370 Assembler classes; those were batched up and transmitted down to Virginia Tech over a phone line every hour, where their big IBM crunched them and squirted the results back.
}:-)4
My alma mater used a VAXcluster when I was there (’84-’87) for student work; an 8600 (I think?), 11/785, and 11/780. I was a student operator on the beasts and always liked VMS because it was very easy to use. We did everything on it for programming classes (COBOL, FORTRAN, Pascal, etc.) except for the IBM 370 Assembler classes; those were batched up and transmitted down to Virginia Tech over a phone line every hour, where their big IBM crunched them and squirted the results back.
}:-)4
“No one wants a computer on their desk.” - Kenneth Olsen
“Ruth made a grave mistake when he gave up pitching. Working once a week he might have lasted a long time and become a great star.” - Tris Speaker, 1919
Yep. Reminds me of my years at HP. One day I screemed “Why is it so hard to do the right thing!”. No one replied because it wasn’t their job.
I cut my programming teeth learning FOCAL on a DEC PDP-8 back in 1968. I seem to remember 4k of RAM available...
And those same managers have moved on and infected other high-tech companies. I know, 'cause I work with several of 'em.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.