gnu@l5.uucp (John Gilmore) (09/24/85)
In article <798@lsuc.UUCP>, jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura) writes: > The cost of licensing OS-9 isn't unreasonably high. If you check > around, you'll find that it's generally licenced for about $100.00 U.S. > The Shack is able to sell it for as little as $70.00 Canadian. Somehow I got the impression that a single-user Unix license (the real thing from AT&T) could be gotten in large volumes at less than $100. This includes a license to run *ALL* the Unix utilities, all the languages, etc. (The people who divide it all up into dozens of separately priced $300 floppies are just ripping you off.) I suspect OS-9 fits better into a system with a 300K floppy and no hard disk, making it a better deal for the $100 for that kind of system, but that wasn't the question.
dibble@rochester.UUCP (Peter C. Dibble) (09/25/85)
> In article <798@lsuc.UUCP>, jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura) writes: > > The cost of licensing OS-9 isn't unreasonably high. If you check > > around, you'll find that it's generally licenced for about $100.00 U.S. > > The Shack is able to sell it for as little as $70.00 Canadian. > > Somehow I got the impression that a single-user Unix license (the real > thing from AT&T) could be gotten in large volumes at less than $100. > This includes a license to run *ALL* the Unix utilities, all the > languages, etc How much does $100 in volume come out to retail. If it's comparable with OS-9's price I'll order a copy as a second operating system. Even all the Unix manuals for < $100 would be a good deal. As a note: I believe that the large volume price for OS-9/68k is about $10 per copy.
jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura) (09/29/85)
In article <153@l5.uucp> gnu@l5.uucp (John Gilmore) writes: >In article <798@lsuc.UUCP>, jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura) writes: >> The cost of licensing OS-9 isn't unreasonably high. If you check >> around, you'll find that it's generally licenced for about $100.00 U.S. >> The Shack is able to sell it for as little as $70.00 Canadian. > >Somehow I got the impression that a single-user Unix license (the real >thing from AT&T) could be gotten in large volumes at less than $100. >This includes a license to run *ALL* the Unix utilities, all the >languages, etc. (The people who divide it all up into dozens of separately >priced $300 floppies are just ripping you off.) > >I suspect OS-9 fits better into a system with a 300K floppy and no hard >disk, making it a better deal for the $100 for that kind of system, but >that wasn't the question. I heard that $100.00 price too. As for the repackagers, well, I don't know that they really rip people off. If they do a reall port, ie with all the hardware interfacing completed, and provide support (which I hear ATT doesn't), then the $300.00 isn't all that bad. Keep in mind that the $100.00 general price of OS-9 is what I see for *ready to run* OS-9 software. You don't have to spend hours trying to get it up. How much is your time worth? Most pros charge around $50.00 from what I've heard. Believe me, you will *not* get generic Unix up in 6 hrs! Still, the *real* point should be that *many* alternatives other than ground up software would have been reasonable enough to consider. -- James Omura, Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura
peter@graffiti.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (10/02/85)
> > I heard that $100.00 price too. As for the repackagers, well, > I don't know that they really rip people off. If they do a reall > port, ie with all the hardware interfacing completed, and provide > support (which I hear ATT doesn't), then the $300.00 isn't all that > bad. Keep in mind that the $100.00 general price of OS-9 is > what I see for *ready to run* OS-9 software. You don't have to > spend hours trying to get it up. How much is your time worth? And the $300 is for a bare-bones UNIX system. They generally charge $1000 to $1500 for the whole thing... $1000 is too much for the amount of time and money it takes to get a Uniplus+ port done for your machine... if it costs less to port UNIX than to develop your own O/S, then why do all these people develop their own O/S-es and sell them for $150, or get UNIX and sell it for a grand?
jss@sjuvax.UUCP (J. Shapiro) (10/03/85)
Last time I checked, single user Unix 5.2 licenses could be sublicensed from appropriate Value Added Resellers at $60 a piece when contracted for in quantity 1000. This does not take into account porting cost or source cost or new development cost to account for new ahrdware. Jon Shapiro -- Jonathan S. Shapiro Haverford College "It doesn't compile pseudo code... What do you expect for fifty dollars?" - M. Tiemann