Where should the type information be: in tags and descriptors 444

That wouldn't have flown.

The managers with the money (not necessarily the IT PHB) was running away from the sweaty grasp of the mini-mainframe vendors as fast as they could; and the vendors answered with all kinds of lock-in. They didn't catch the exodus, either of them. Just the notion that the DP company (and DEC was on the 'good side') should control your core technology and make industrial policy around it was and is a gross put-off for every top manager worth their salt.

Just think of the notion to drop a product line out of the blue. The May 17th decition opened our eyes that DEC fundamentally was like the rest of the BUNCH. 1 Not that this was particularly special among non-IBM companies, it just confirmed where DEC stood. They were NOT like IBM.

Microsoft filled the void; and they were acceptable because they were an independent. And they have learned not to close down customer's business.

Better integration and networking would have been a great win; but the quest for TCP-IP and open systems had to be rammed down the throats of all the vendors. The reflex of NIH and lock-in was so pervasive you needed the old companies to die before the Internet could be a success.

-- mrr

1 What would have been an acceptable outcome? To sell the business. If DEC didn't want mainframes, fine. But don't actively destroy your customers's business in the process.