I believe the line was: "running DEC Diagnostics is like kicking a dead whale down the beach."As for who said it, I'm not sure, but I think it was someone like Rob Kolstad or Henry Spencer.I suspect a grep of some type on some extremely old net.noise archives of the late 1970s/early 1980s might find it.
This was the earliest reference I could easily find, from
comp.unix.questions in Jan '87, but the author says it's an old joke.
It's the last post in the thread:
https://groups.google.com/g/comp.unix.questions/c/fFtkBC3TcLc/m/QphFGT7BAfsJ
-Henry
ᐧᐧOn Wed, Sep 1, 2021 at 9:31 AM <arnold@skeeve.com> wrote:...
DEC Diagnositcs would run on a beached whale
?
Anyone remember and/or know?
(It seems to apply to other manufacturer's diagnostics as well, even today.)
Thanks,
Arnold