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bybobbied ( 2522392 ) writes:
Fitting that a defunct country would stockpile defunct clone hardware.
I guess they figured out what I figured out. VAX was a dead end.
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byEntrope ( 68843 ) writes:
Where I went to university, a student club had a VAX server called Kremvax. The club was KGB (supposedly Keeping Geeks Busy), and the server name got them a visit from the FBI. Or at least a visit by federal counterintelligence agents who claimed to be from the FBI.
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byhawk ( 1151 ) writes:
The 1984 kremvax announcement may well be the best April 1 prank of all time . . .
I was laughing as I read it, but the number of people that took it seriously was amusing . . . and it became hysterical as some became outraged at missing the "opportunity for peace" . . .
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byhey! ( 33014 ) writes:
In retrospect, DEC set up a complicated business with interlocking proprietary focuses: midrange computers, networking, storage, printers, consoles, etc. This was like a line of dominoes, because problems selling in one area created risks in other areas. If the minicomputer business is stalled, then your proprietary networking business isn't going to grow. They faced unexpectedly tough competition in the minicomputer market from IBM's AS/400, they were late out of the gate in the workstation market where they also faced tough competition.
But if you're running a planned economy, copy the VAX ecosystem made a lot of sense. You wouldn't be worried about vendor lock-in, and many of the DEC products were quite advanced for their time. The VAX ISA was really easy to work with and there was a lot of good (for the time) software for it that you weren't worried about having to pay for.
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byaccount_deleted ( 4530225 ) writes:
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byThe123king ( 2395060 ) writes:
DEC's own PDP-11 line lasted a little longer than the VAX, with DEC themselves winding up PDP-11 production in the early 90's, but companies like Memorex and Mentec manufacturing new hardware up until the early/mid 2000's. There's specialist companies that still, to this day, manufacture and sell modern PDP-11 replacement machines, with both hardware and software compatibility (even if they use little to no "real" PDP-11 hardware, and are little more than a PC with a QBUS interface)
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byaccount_deleted ( 4530225 ) writes:
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byThe123king ( 2395060 ) writes:
It's believed that some Chinese military CPUs are direct descendants of Alpha chips. Alpha might not be dead, but it might now be a bit "niche" and otherwise unknown outside of its userbase.
byArchieBunker ( 132337 ) writes:
OpenVMS will outlive you.
bybobbied ( 2522392 ) writes:
OpenVMS will outlive you.
Is that still a thing anybody uses? I'm actually a certified VAX administrator, worked as one for about 5 years and I have all the certifications to prove it. VAX was dead almost two decades ago, at least the writing was on the wall when I left that job.
byThe123king ( 2395060 ) writes:
VMS' DNA will continue. Much of the real NT API (not Windows subsystems etc) is heavily influenced by VMS.
byvbdasc ( 146051 ) writes:
OpenVMS works right now on VAX, Alpha and Itanium architectures, which are arguably all dead, and the OS is not being developed for them anymore, but it's being ported to AMD64, and new versions are said to be underway.
byaccount_deleted ( 4530225 ) writes:
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bykmoser ( 1469707 ) writes:
In Soviet Russia, Zork plays *you!*
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