Why did Tektronix stop making the great scopes?

[David Hess]

I thought one of Tek's missteps was going full in on Power PC for the CPU choice, and it's kind of a slow dog and lagged for clock speed, memory and features.

What were the better alternatives?

Tektronix was using custom logic in their digitizers as far back as 1990 with the 2232, which is the second oldest DSO worth having and embedded the 80188.  I do not remember what the TDS series used.  PowerPC seems like a reasonable choice for the system processor since it had good embedded support, unlike x86 by that time.

[floobydust]

I think there was a period Tek went dead or turtle slow on development after the evil Danaher acquisition of late 2007. Who wouldn't be shell shocked and in a coma over there with layoffs and "milk the cow faster" mentality these mega-conglomerates have.

Single-core PowerPC used in their MSO/DPO2000, 3000 (PowerPC 440EP), 4000 (PowerPC 460EX) lineup. These were already at least 5 year old CPUs for the era of the product.
(We aren't including the OS which is part of the performance).

Got a Tek MSO3000 and Agilent MSO-X-3014 to evaluate around 2012.
The Tek was solid but sluggish sometimes, sort of mentioned here when the logic analyzer or spectrum analyzer running.
I find whenever the UI processor has work to do- measurements, math, FFT, logic channels - things would get too slow. Yeah the selling features are there, but not so usable.

Up against Agilent running i.MX6SRSFS ARM A9 was fast and sexy big LCD screen.
BUT the Agilent crash and burned on firmware bugs, at the time I couldn't believe it - blank trace so a BNC tee running both scopes proved the Tek was a faithful horse and displayed the signal no problem. Tried to tell Agilent about the bugs and it's the usual "are you using it correctly?" and then layers of hassle as time-wasting demoralizing support requests. So, did not buy the Agilent.
Did not buy the Tek for the lab either actually, it was a bit slow and the built-in spectrum analyzer limited and who really designs cellphone equipment it seemed intended for.

This is not about buying a new scope today but looking at Tek's products lagging years after the acquisition while Agilent was rolling out new products, not necessarily better by any means but... looking fresh.

Danaher is not at all about doing R&D or product development beyond the absolute minimum to keep a brand appearing alive.
Fluke is in the same boat as Tek, old dead brand names, test equipment zombies in a way.