Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

VAX
     
         /vaks/ (Virtual Address eXtensio) 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 micros} after about
        1986, the VAX was probably the {hacker}'s favourite machine,
        especially after the 1982 release of {4.2BSD} {Unix}.
        Especially noted for its large, {assembly
        code}-programmer-friendly {instruction set} - an asset that
        became a liability after the {RISC} revolution.
     
        VAX is also a British brand of {carpet cleaner
        (http://www.vax.co.uk/)} whose advertising slogan, "Nothing
        sucks like a VAX!" became a battle-cry of RISC partisans.  It
        is even sometimes claimed that DEC actually entered a
        licencing deal that allowed them to market VAX computers in
        the UK in return for not challenging the carpet cleaner
        trademark in the US.
     
        The slogan originated in the late 1960s as "Nothing sucks like
        Electrolux", Electrolux AB being a rival Swedish company.  It
        became a classic textbook example of the perils of not knowing
        the local idiom, which is ironic because, according to the
        Electrolux press manager in 1996, the double entendre was
        intentional.  VAX copied the slogan in their promotions in
        1986-1987, and it surfaced in New Zealand TV ads as recently
        as 1992!
     
        [{Jargon File}]
     
        (2000-09-28)