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Date: Tue,  6 Oct 2009 13:03:13 -0700
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From: ron minnich <rminnich@gmail.com>
To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net>
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On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 12:13 PM, Lyndon Nerenberg - VE6BBM/VE7TFX
<lyndon@orthanc.ca> wrote:

> I don't think DEC deserves this branding. In my experience they were
> one of the most open hardware companies around. Back when they were still
> DEC, of course.

You never dealt with Alpha maybe. The story is long and sad. One word:
PALcode. DEC deliberately limited PALcode  access so that 3rd party
board vendors could not make boards as good as DECs. It did not seem
to matter that these vendors were selling Alphas ... only that their
Alpha board should not be "too good". This story is just one of many
w.r.t. DEC. It was sad to watch the Alpha blow its early lead due to
internal politics. Get with somebody who was in DEC at the time trying
to make Alpha succeed and you'll hear some interesting tales.

Does this situation have a present-day equivalent in the PC world? Yes.

ron