aron (12/10/82)
I am in the final stages of deciding to buy a DEC micro. Anyway, I found DEC salespeople *totally* useless for info. I must give DEC alot of credit though. They have set up an 800 number (800-Digital) staffed with intelligent and knowledgeable people who are willing to answer questions and get information for you if they don't have it. Anyway, I have some information which might be of interest to those of you considering to buy a DEC micro: (1) The PRO 325 and 350 will both be housed in the large system box (contrary to earlier announcements). Only the Rainbow will still be in the smaller box. (2) There is a definite maybe on some third party (my guess Microsoft/Xenix) offering Unix for the Rainbow. There are no plans to offer Unix for the Professional series. MS-DOS is currently available for the Rainbow (hence the likely Xenix upgrade). (3) The bit-map graphics on the Rainbow (with bit-map option) and the PROs will be identical, except that the latter can run REGIS software when hooked up to a DEC "mainframe". (again, earlier literature seemed to imply this was not true). For what its worth, my own conclusion has been to buy Rainbow instead of PRO. Because of IBM, the amount of software available for the Rainbow will far outstrip the PRO. This will be even more true when Unix comes out on the Rainbow. Besides, I think the 8088 has an edge on the LSI-11, although I must admit my expertise in microprocessor architecture is limited.