XPost: alt.folklore.computers   
   From: cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net   
      
   In article <107008b$3g8jl$1@dont-email.me>,   
   Thomas Koenig   wrote:   
   >Dan Cross  schrieb:   
   >> In article <106uqej$36gll$3@dont-email.me>,   
   >> Thomas Koenig   wrote:   
   >>>Peter Flass  schrieb:   
   >>>   
   >>>> The support issues alone were killers. Think about the   
   >>>> Orange/Grey/(Blue?) Wall of VAX documentation, and then look at the   
   >>>> five-page flimsy you got with a micro. The customers were willing to   
   >>>> accept cr*p from a small startup, but wouldn't put up with it from IBM   
   >>>> or DEC.   
   >>>   
   >>>Using UNIX faced stiff competition from AT&T's internal IT people,   
   >>>who wanted to run DEC's operating systems on all PDP-11 within   
   >>>the company (basically, they wanted to kill UNIX).  They pointed   
   >>>towads the large amout of documentation that DEC provided, compared   
   >>>to the low amount of UNIX, as proof of superiority.  The UNIX people   
   >>>saw it differently...   
   >>   
   >> I've never heard this before, and I do not believe that it is   
   >> true.  Do you have a source?   
   >   
   >Hmm... I _think_ it was on a talk given by the UNIX people,   
   >but I may be misremembering.   
      
   I have heard similar stories about DEC, but not AT&T.  The Unix   
   fortune file used to (in)famously have a quote from Ken Olsen   
   about the relative volume of documentation between Unix and VMS   
   (reproduced below).   
      
   	- Dan C.   
      
   --->BEGIN FORTUNE<---   
      
           One of the questions that comes up all the time is: How   
   enthusiastic is our support for UNIX?   
           Unix was written on our machines and for our machines many   
   years ago.  Today, much of UNIX being done is done on our machines.   
   Ten percent of our VAXs are going for UNIX use.  UNIX is a simple   
   language, easy to understand, easy to get started with.  It's great for   
   students, great for somewhat casual users, and it's great for   
   interchanging programs between different machines.  And so, because of   
   its popularity in these markets, we support it.  We have good UNIX on   
   VAX and good UNIX on PDP-11s.   
           It is our belief, however, that serious professional users will   
   run out of things they can do with UNIX. They'll want a real system and   
   will end up doing VMS when they get to be serious about programming.   
           With UNIX, if you're looking for something, you can easily and   
   quickly check that small manual and find out that it's not there.  With   
   VMS, no matter what you look for -- it's literally a five-foot shelf of   
   documentation -- if you look long enough it's there.  That's the   
   difference -- the beauty of UNIX is it's simple; and the beauty of VMS   
   is that it's all there.   
                   -- Ken Olsen, President of DEC, 1984   
      
   --->END FORTUNE<---   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)