4 ms·

I think DEC's strong trend line of NIH (almost as strong as IBM) almost certainly dooms a PC-PDP - IBM only made the PC by effectively creating a skunkworks wit

by Aloha 3y ago

I think DEC's strong trend line of NIH (almost as strong as IBM) almost certainly dooms a PC-PDP - IBM only made the PC by effectively creating a skunkworks within the company that was focused solely on 'go to market' compared to the normal IBM development process. I dont know if DEC could or would have done that.

WalterBright 3y ago
I was a DEC-head in the 70's and 80's, and along with my fellow DEC-heads anxiously awaited DEC's entry into the PC arena. Everyone was excited to see the rollout of the Rainbow, sure it would be a killer machine like other DEC machines. After the presentation, we were all in shock. It did not play to any of DEC's strengths, and was just a crummy, proprietary x86 insult. That was the end of our love affair with DEC. Very sad.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  One of the worst own goals in the history of computing imnsho.
- Aloha 3y ago
  IMO, part of what killed DEC was what almost killed IBM - poor management and a somewhat loathed sales force. DEC tried to go after IBM and in doing so structured itself after IBM, it lead to multiple competing projects and groups doing similar work, multiple layers of management making the company unwieldy to manage, and a sales force that had trouble building the customer relationship because of internal structures. The same thing functionally killed Motorola, and will eventually harm Cisco too (Cisco is a company that in my opinion is ripe for 'disruption').