I feel like Compaq was evolutionary, and DEC was revolutionary. Their great coups are more about timing than anything else, I'd say. By showing up shortly aft

I feel like Compaq was evolutionary, and DEC was revolutionary. Their great coups are more about timing than anything else, I'd say. By showing up shortly after the very first generation of "PC Compatibles", they managed to miss the tendency to build something "better but not compatible", and had a chance to plan a strategy for when IBM's lawyers came calling. Getting a 386 to market was inevitable; if they didn't do it, someone else would. Without Compaq, the PS/2 Model 80 might have been the first 386 PC, but it would still have had a hard time fighting off cheaper and more versatile ISA-bus clones. Maybe I'm still resentful of the mid-late 90s days, when the dream was a standard AT chassis and power supply and its reliable upgrade path, rather than manufacturers like Compaq with their zany form factors.