Why Was: US Military Dead during Iraq War 1805

Sigh! They were. Our customers were not dummies. Just because Bell and his ilk buttume they stupid did not make them so. This is why handing our customers edicts about the kind of computing they were "supposed" to do did not work.

I don't remember price lists nor Software Product Descriptions describing these things. DEC didn't sell "solutions". There were other companies who would take our gear and do onefers of the type you listed. There a 3-character acronym for them, and I can never ever remember it; I always want to say OEM which is incorrect.

This is a nice IBMish marketing line. People keep forgetting that our customers were just as, if not more, innovative than we were. We fed off each other. Do not ever forget the fact that the only reason DEC was successful is because our products allowed the buyers to own their gear and play with it as much as they wanted. Their usage was not duct-taped with a lease contract. Their costs were purely purchase and maintenance, not usage.

The reason DEC failed was because certain idiots started treating them all like babies who didn't know any better and had to be told what to do, how to do, and when to do it. IOW, one product line was built on the action of insulting the intelligence of the customer.

We could have f***ed everything else up and they would have still bought our gear. But telling them that they were too stupid to know what they needed in computing end the company. Once you forget that the customer is the expert, w.r.t. to his computing needs and usage, you're dead. It is similar to medical doctors. They are not the experts in disease; each person who is ill is the expert. Doctors are at least twice removed from the experiences of the illness. This is exactly the same with hard-software bit gods... unless they are a customer.

BAH

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