maddog: Letter to InfoWorld: Linux 64-bit since 1995!

[Jon maddog Hall]

Kuni,

You forgot to copy the rest of the list, but I will pick this up:

> --- Jon maddog Hall <maddog at li.org> wrote:
> NT was available for the Alpha, and isn't any more.  Microsoft dropped
> support
> for it several years ago, leaving a lot of Alpha NT customers high and dry.
> Of course the customers blamed Digital, not Microsoft.

kuni_tetsu at yahoo.com said:
>From what I understand, it was Digital that dropped it. The issue was that
> Digital was always lagging behind since they did not get code to port until
> near the end of the development cycle... They were always about a year or so
> behind main NT development and got tired of playing catch-up. Add to that the
> fact that the deal with MS only extended to NT, not the later branches off of
> that code.

> So it was Digital's fault... at least partly.

> Anyone who was actually involved care to comment? 

I doubt that anyone other than some of the senior VPs, Ken Olson, Bob
Palmer or Gates/Balmer/Cutler knows the total story of the relationship
between Digital and Microsoft.  However, I was in Digital when the "partnership"
broke up, and I remember the stunned feeling that came out of the NT group
after a decade of "Microsoft is our friend" and "NT is the volume business
for Alpha" when the announcement of the "divorce" was made.

Personally, I believe that "getting the NT code at the end of the development
cycle" is not necessarily a bad thing, especially when it comes from Microsoft,
but not working the 64-bit code into the base product was definitely a lack
on Microsoft's part.

You are right, it was Digital's fault, for ever believing that Microsoft ever
has anyone's interest at heart other than Microsoft, and for believing that
such a company could be a true partner.  IMHO, if Digital and Microsoft had
been married, Digital could have sued for "cruel and unusual treatment."

md
-- 
Jon "maddog" Hall
Executive Director           Linux International(R)
email: maddog at li.org         80 Amherst St. 
Voice: +1.603.672.4557       Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A.
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Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association

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