🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jul30.050022.27714@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> chu@hanauma.jpl.nasa.gov (Eugene Chu) writes:
>Hi folks,
>
>This is my first posting here, so bear with me if I sound ignorant.
>I have a question about the availability of the ALPHA worksations
>for end users.  Three months ago, I heard from various people, including
>my DEC sales reps, that the workstations will be available by July 15.
>Then when the day rolled around, I was told that its release has been
>delayed by about 3 months.  All this time, I've been waiting to order
>one of these highly advertised systems, but I can't because someone at
>DEC will not release them.  Then recently I heard that one of our labs
>is getting a loaner, for FREE!  Now, I wonder why DEC is willing to
>loan one out to someone else in my organization, while they won't
>sell one to me, when I ready and willing to PAY for it?
>
As an end user who reads the DEC and UNIX press and follows this
newsgroup, I have never heard the July 15th availability date for end
users. Third party developers were supposed to start receiving ALPHA
workstations in July with end user volume shipments to start in
December. It's very likely that DEC will announce the systems and start
taking orders a few weeks before December. The lab that's getting a
"FREE" alpha, might be a large/important customer and the unit is just a
"seed" unit. The operating system (VMS or OSF/1) on units shipped
currently may not be robust enough for DEC to feel comfortable shipping
them to end users eventhough the hardware may be ready. 

As Gail sent a message recently, there are part numbers for upgrade of 
DECstation 5000/2xx series to ALPHA. So you may be able to buy a
5000/2xx now plus the upgrade price now.

P.S. We are not 3rd party developers, nor huge workstation buyers,
so we don't expect to see an ALPHA machine until they are released and
someone orders one. I would characterize JPL as a very important
customer to system vendors though!

Fred Velijanian
University of California, Irvine
fredv@uci.edu