First Internet message and ...

[Jon Elson]

On 11/26/2019 09:02 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
> CDC had a scorched-earth policy when it came to leased 
> mainframes. I suspect that IBM did also. I witnessed CEs 
> taking sledgehammers and bolt cutters to several 
> interesting mainframes. The official directive was that 
> nothing was to leave the facility that could be re-sold.
Were these leased machines or customer-owned machines?

I don't know about CDC, but IBM would very gently 
disassemble and prepare for shipping any mainframe so the 
customer could sell it on to another outfit.  They would 
often do this EVEN IF it had been made clear the machine was 
going to the scrapyard.
There was a HUGE second market in IBM mainframe gear at one 
time (late 60's to mid 70's at least.)

CDC may have had many more custom/one-of-a-kind machines, 
while IBM had tons of identical units in the field.
Maybe that makes a difference.

And, IBM moved leased machines around like they were 
dominoes.  But, yes, if they had a leased machine that they 
KNEW would never be used again, they would not dump it at 
the customer's back dock, it would be trucked off to SOMEWHERE.

As for the 360's, they HAD to keep them for spare parts, as 
they were maintaining (generally owned, not leased) 360 
machines WAY after the SLT factory was shut down.  This came 
to a head when they were directed to keep the National 
Airspace System running WELL PAST its "sell by" date, and 
they reclaimed all machines extant, including owned 
machines, to scavenge them for parts.

Jon