Would anyone buy a VAX today? Yes!
I bought a MicroVax 3100 2 years ago on the used computer market for $2,000, and a 9-track tape drive for about the same. The reason was that we received a research contract which involved reviving an old VAX-based research project that had been shut down in the 80's, and which at the time we assumed was closed forever. We needed the VAX to restore our old data files and programs (FORTRAN and SPSS) that resided on a library of about one hundred old tapes, many in VMS Backup format. The VAX networked seamlessly into the Columbia University computing network, and with FTP we easily transported everything to PCs. The most amazing part is that VMS and DCL are so intuitive that I was able to pick up system work (and the EDT editor) after so many years without looking at documentation. By contrast, we're having a devil of a time tranferring archived IBM 360 tapes to our PC system.
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Would anyone buy a VAX today? Yes! I bought a MicroVax 3100 2 years ago on the used computer market for $2,000, and a 9-track tape drive for about the same. The reason was that we received a research contract which involved reviving an old VAX-based research project that had been shut down in the 80's, and which at the time we assumed was closed forever. We needed the VAX to restore our old data files and programs (FORTRAN and SPSS) that resided on a library of about one hundred old tapes, many in VMS Backup format. The VAX networked seamlessly into the Columbia University computing network, and with FTP we easily transported everything to PCs. The most amazing part is that VMS and DCL are so intuitive that I was able to pick up system work (and the EDT editor) after so many years without looking at documentation. By contrast, we're having a devil of a time tranferring archived IBM 360 tapes to our PC system.