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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elwood P. Dowd who wrote (21114)	3/9/1998 5:52:00 PM
From: George Dvorsky	Respond to of 97611

RE: " Drove most of the wierdos and riff-raff off the thread." You sound like us Deccies. On a serious note, the stock fell because the Yahoo types bailed, as well as the prudent. This cleansing will be good for the soul, whenever it is over. One day does not a selloff make. Be careful out there... gd

To: Elwood P. Dowd who wrote (21114)	3/9/1998 6:33:00 PM
From: FR1	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

I'm in CPQ for the long run and I like the Digital merger because it gives CPQ a large sales & support staff plus mainframe engineers with UNIX knowledge for going after the big game. However, there is one thing that troubles me. CPQ has historically built its reputation as being a very economical and well tested computer that anybody can work on. Pick up the phone right now and call any PC shop - anybody can work on a compaq. This means you can shop for a smart tech and good price. It also means CPQ is spreading the wealth around and creating a lot of dedicated businesses. IBM, on the other hand, has a reputation of locking you into their system with proprietary hardware and high prices. This is how CPQ built their basic business. DEC is more like IBM. I bought a DEC computer and it was a marvel of engineering but it was unlike anything else around. Pick up the phone, call a average PC maintenance business and tell them you have a DEC. They will tell you to call DEC. Call DEC and they will tell you to mortgage your house and have tons of cash on hand before they come around - and they know you don't have a choice. I will never buy another DEC computer for the same reason I don't like IBM - they lock you in and charge you a enormous amount of money for anything (compared to the open market) and if they can't fix-it you have no one else to go to. The big question is this: are we going to make DEC PCs more like CPQ or CPQ PCs more like DEC (you CAN NOT have both)? Another item that may be dragging CPQ into the "aloof and isolated" image is the Alpha chip. It seems CPQ will be pressured to use Alpha in place of high-end Intel. Let's not forget that DEC sued Intel not that long ago and Intel whipped their fanny bad. We are talking cats and dogs here. We just married a cat and we are going to ask the dogs to come and play with us. Bottom line: I hope CPQ guts the PC line of DEC in favor of the CPQ internal PC design and somehow CPQ gets away from being married to the Alpha chip. Alpha will require tons of R&D + special hand holding + enemy status in the eyes of Intel and other chip makers. Somehow we have to keep the status of a box that many people can supply parts to and anyone can repair. Otherwise it's all DELL. Somebody tell me I don't have to worry!