Re: Improving Ada's Image

[Kilgallen@SpamCop.net (Larry Kilgallen)]

In article <QdVDc.10908$Xn.434@nwrdny03.gnilink.net>, "Frank J. Lhota" <NOSPAM.lhota.adarose@verizon.net> writes:
> "Marin David Condic" <nobody@noplace.com> wrote in message
> news:40DDDBE0.1080207@noplace.com...
>> If VMS ran on a PC (and other platforms besides DEC equipment) and it
>> was available for what people tend to pay for a Windows or Linux
>> installation (near nothing in many cases) it might have stood a chance.
>> Even if VMS only ran on an Alpha, but you could at least buy one for
>> around a grand (like you can with a lower end PC) and it came with all
>> the end-user features one typically finds available on a PC - or can
>> readily be obtained for a PC at a rational cost - it might have been a
>> contender. But the Adult Supervision at DEC had other ideas - and where
>> are they now?
> 
> I have a brother-in-law who, while he worked at DEC, had an Alpha-based
> laptop that ran VMS. I always wondered why this sort of platform was not
> more heavily promoted by DEC.

It was made by Tadpole rather than DEC (the only instance of a non-military
machine from a third party for which VMS was supported).  It cost $14,000.

By today's standards, of course, it draws too much power and has too little
memory.   The next source of a VMS laptop will likely be an Itanium
laptop, but those do not seem imminent.  In the meantime, some people run
VMS on IA32 machines under a VAX emulator, but that requires being plugged
into the wall because the host operating systems don't have a way for the
emulator to tell the host OS "VMS is in the idle loop - slow down the CPU".