Perhaps this is old news to most of you, but I hadn't read it before:

http://www.digital.com/alphaserver/vax/vax_letter_final.html


<Quote>

"Thus, due to the rapidly diminishing demand for VAX hardware, and the
associated business viability, Compaq will be announcing last order and
ship dates* for its VAX hardware products."


*Model                      Last order date        Last ship date 
VAX 7000 Model 800          No Supply              No Supply 
VAXstation 4000 Model 96    September              December 
                            30, 1999               31, 1999 
VAX 4000 Model 108          September              December 
                            30, 2000               31, 2000 
MicroVAX 3100 Model 88/98   September              December 
                            30, 2000               31, 2000

</Quote>


This marks the end of an era in computing, the final gasp of the PDP,
the 36-bit machines and of course the VAXen themselves.

If I have the money I'm going to place an order for a VAX next
September, and try to get NetBSD/vax up and running on it. Just for old
times sake... heck, I grew up with VAXen, learned to program on them and
learned how to be a sysadmin on a VAXcluster with almost a thousand
users. This is quite emotional for me, excuse me while I blow my nose
and wipe a tear from my eyes... ;-)

RIP, VAX.

If only I had the money to buy the remnants of Digital back from
Compaq... I'd set up shop in The Mill (fly swatters at hand and all) and
get back to basics.

Gunnar

--
Gunnar Helliesen   | Bergen IT Consult AS  | NetBSD/VAX on a uVAX II
Systems Consultant | Bergen, Norway        | '86 Jaguar Sovereign 4.2
gunnar@bitcon.no   | http://www.bitcon.no/ | '73 Mercedes 280 (240D)