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You had to be the best of the Best to work for DEC —not a nerd-hipster (like the talented, but not trained or experienced techies at Apple and Microsoft). Appl
by vaxman 4y ago
You had to be the best of the Best to work for DEC —not a nerd-hipster (like the talented, but not trained or experienced techies at Apple and Microsoft). Apple and Microsoft were all over us trying to get us to quit DEC by falling for their limos and food courts (our CEO drove a Pinto and we wore suits because it neutralized people coming from different backgrounds as being equal, so we could truly work together regardless of our socioeconomic background, not because we were jerks like LSD-dropping Steve Jobs, who was off screwing Japanese investors out of $100 million in 1989s money with in his magnesium Cube at the time). A couple things happened to change it all, but the gist of it is that Dave Cutler finally cracked and defected to Microsoft (he’s the Ace of Aces behind all major DEC systems from 1970s forward and now behind NT and Azure) and the DEC boardroom was anxious about Intel having appropriated DEC’s revolutionary RISC processor tech that would go on to give us the last 35 years of the otherwise dead X86 tech that was cheaper because it was being sold in high volume by an army of PC clone makers. First the Board sold DEC’s Hudson division that made the groundbreaking Alpha and StrongARM chips to Intel (as a settlement), and then they sold DEC itself. There is a lot more to the story, but that’s pretty much the bottom line. What happened to the people? Cutler took many, when Google and Amazon became a thing, they tracked some or us down (including YouTube founders) and took some. The vast majority were sent to the benches (permanently). I heard a rumor that DEC’s then youngest senior level worker ever today hangs out on here sometimes and has a reputation of like 11 because truth sort of conflicts badly with all the crap that bloggers wrote for the current generation over the past 35 years. You see, those bloggers were maybe computer store (like shoe store) salesmen, but probably were just slightly smart school children when all of that reality was goin’ on. RIP Ken Olsen. FU Dave Cutler.
- fs111 4y agoYou seem bitter. Maybe you should grow out of this weird believe system that only hard-core techies are worth their salt or something. The world works different than you want, which seems to frustrate you greatly. Maybe accept it and be a bit happier?
- actionfromafar 4y agoPosting a salty anecdote of loss and missed opportunity from the early (presumably) days of ones career doesn't necessarily mean someone is bitter in general.
- bunderbunder 4y agoFair point, but inferring from a comment or two that someone must use the wrong brand of paper towels at home and then constructing an ad hominem around that is the true soul of HN discourse.
- fs111 4y agosure, but the tone sounds if OP has not moved on. Why be so angry after all these years?
- KMag 4y agoI think the bitterness (mostly) in in jest, to add flavor to the story.
- seabird 4y agoOne of the primary uses for computer technology today is displaying ads at any cost to society. This isn't what those who worked in the field in the early days envisioned. You can't blame them for being mad about it. I wasn't even there and I'm mad about it.
- jamespo 4y agoMaybe one day you'll post an anecdote as interesting
- technothrasher 4y ago> sold DEC’s Hudson division [...] to Intel Intel is having a heck of a time now getting rid of that campus in Hudson. They're trying to sell it to Portman Industrial, who want to redevelop it as a warehouse and trucking facility. But folks at the abutting senior living developments have put up a huge stink, suing Intel and the town and picketing on the street outside the location.
- mannyv 4y agoI worked with an ex-DEC guy up in Nashua NH, and even he knew that DEC screwed up big time by being too engineering driven. The NIH was so strong there that they made their own in-wall receptacles (probably apocryphal). Bob apparently hired Bricklin (the visicalc guy) at DEC. Hi bob if you're out there!
- manv1 4y agoBut yes, Windows NT was basically a DEC product. Cutler probably left because he knew DEC was dead. DEC: the brain was dead, but the body lived on. DEC showed how long a company could survive on inertia alone.