Where to get a Vax or microvax

[Guy Sotomayor]

> On Jun 29, 2015, at 9:08 AM, tony duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> 
>> on real hardware. What would be the best machine for a beginner to VAX
>> Hardware to start out with?
> 
> I think you need to think very carefully about what you want this machine to do. 
> The ideal VAX for me is not going to necessarily be the ideal VAX for you.
> 
> In general there are 3 classes of VAX that people run at home. There are many
> other families, but in general they are much rarer, and probably much harder to 
> maintain.
> 
> The first series are the VAXstations, probably a 3100 of some kind. 

[snip]

> 
> The second series are the MicroVAX II/III machines.

[snip]

> 
> The third series I hesitate to mention, as I don't think they're what you are looking for. That's
> the first ever VAX series, the 11/7xx machines. There are 3 sub-families.

[snip]

I think Tony has the list just about right for someone wanting to get into VAX hardware.  If you'd
raised this about 18 months ago, you could've picked from any in the above list (yes, including 
11/780's) when I moved.

To give folks an idea of how much stuff I had jammed into my (many) storage units, as I was
going through them trying to figure out what I'd keep and what I would "dispose" of, I found a
VAX 11/780 that I didn't know that I had.  I knew that I had one in storage as I was digging/sorting
I "discovered" a second 11/780 that I had forgotten was in there.  

You *know* you have too much stuff and it's packed too tightly when you can "lose" a VAX 11/780!

TTFN - Guy