what's wrong with microVax II?

[preece at ccvaxa.UUCP]

According to Electronics, DEC has stopped shipping microVax IIs
with Ultrix because of an unspecified problem with the operating
system.  Are there any of you out there who know what the problem
is?

The article was interesting on a number of fronts.  Apparently a
large factor in pushing Ultrix out the door at first ship was
a large GM RFQ for Unix-based workstations.  According to the
article, the mVax II was disqualified on that bid because it
was not "Unix-based" but was optimized for VMS and had Ultrix
grafted on.  This seemed somewhat curious, since Apollo was one
of the qualifying bidders, and their Unix is also an alternative,
rather than principal, operating system offering (though Aegis
may be closer to Unix than VMS).  I wonder how GM defined "Unix-based."

-- 
scott preece
gould/csd - urbana
ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!preece

[Disclaimer: it's not impossible that Gould bid on that GM contract;
if so, this should not be construed as a request for information
that bidders shouldn't be allowed to hear or as carping at the
competition, but rather as the idle curiosity of a Unix person
in no way representing himself as an official manifestation of
Gould Electronics Computer Systems Division...]