Unix dead??? (DEC's dilemma)

[Dick Dunn]

(Before you hit 'n'--this is NOT about copyright, nor is it a pro/anti
UNIX/VMS flame.)

Regarding Mark Crispin's reposting of an anti-UNIX flame from the 8/86
"DEC Professional" (sic) - 

DEC is showing various signs of being unable to decide whether they want to
be a closed, "us and them" sort of company or want to participate in an
open world where hardware and software both come from various sources.  You
can pick examples like the attitude toward the BI bus, or the printer shown
at DECUS which will apparently only talk DECNET, or in their attitude
toward UNIX.

The problem is roughly this:  If you can lock people into your systems,
you've got a more stable captive market.  If you open up your systems, you
can lose piecemeal to other vendors.  But you can also sell to a larger
market, and you can sell, e.g., peripherals, to people who aren't your
standard locked-in customers.  DEC is pulled both ways more than most
manufacturers--they're large enough to be tempted to try the dominant,
insular approach but they're not large enough to be sure to be able to do
it (meaning simply:  they're not IBM).

With UNIX, the problems come up in spades:  Who asked anybody to go write an
operating system for DEC computers?  It's particularly confounding because
it undercuts their software and sells their hardware!  Watching DEC from
the outside, I would have to guess that there are massive internal wars
over VMS vs UNIX.  I guess when the radical VMS faction gets the upper
hand, you get the sort of tripe that Dvorak wrote (Dvorak being the author
of the article that Crispin posted).

It's pretty clear that Dvorak's words won't really do VMS any good, nor
UNIX any harm - in fact, probably just the opposite.  But they're the sort
of war chant which will whip up a frenzy in one small part of the VMS
camp.  The mere publication of that sort of article says a lot about DEC's
problems.  Unfortunately, one of the attitudes that it suggests is a sort
of desperation--if you can't attack substance, go for an ad hominem attack.
I doubt that VMS is really that seriously threatened--it's not a terrible
system and it's got some things that UNIX lacks--but the article seems like
a vicious rejoinder to SOMEthing.  (It's reminiscent of blasts against UNIX
that I saw in a couple of random DTACK Grounded issues once.)

I think DEC needs to decide whether they're going to become serious players
in an open, competitive marketplace (of which UNIX is a vital part) or try
to take their customers off to one side where they can see that they get
only DEC hardware and software.  I rather hope DEC will decide to join the
party, because I think they could do a lot of good--they're big enough to
be able to force things to happen but also technologically capable enough
to force them in the right direction.
-- 
Dick Dunn	{hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd		(303)444-5710 x3086
   ...If you get confused just listen to the music play...