VAX
:VAX: /vaks/ n. 1. [from Virtual Address eXtension] The most successful
minicomputer design in industry history, possibly excepting its
immediate ancestor, the PDP-11. Between its release in 1978 and its
eclipse by killer micro
after about 1986, the VAX was probably the
hacker's favorite machine of them all, esp. after the 1982 release of
4.2 BSD Unix (see BSD
. Esp. noted for its large,
assembler-programmer-friendly instruction set -- an asset that became a
liability after the RISC revolution. 2. A major brand of vacuum cleaner
in Britain. Cited here because its sales pitch, "Nothing sucks like a
VAX!" became a sort of battle-cry of RISC partisans. It is even
sometimes claimed that DEC actually entered a cross-licensing deal with
the vacuum-Vax people that allowed them to market VAX computers in the
U.K. in return for not challenging the vacuum cleaner trademark in the
U.S.
A rival brand actually pioneered the slogan: its original form was
"Nothing sucks like Electrolux". It has apparently become a classic
example (used in advertising textbooks) of the perils of not knowing the
local idiom. But in 1996, the press manager of Electrolux AB, while
confirming that the company used this slogan in the late 1960s, also
tells us that their marketing people were fully aware of the possible
double entendre and intended it to gain attention.
And gain attention it did - the VAX-vacuum-cleaner people thought the
slogan a sufficiently good idea to copy it. Several British hackers
report that VAX's promotions used it in 1986-1987, and we have one
report from a New Zealander that the infamous slogan surfaced there in
TV ads for the product in 1992.
Jargon File Version 4.3.1, 29 JUN 2001 =
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