richard@pnet02.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) (07/24/87)
$100 doesn't seem draconian to me either.
$500 for a Mircocruft windows development kit, now thats draconian.
UUCP: {ihnp4!crash, hplabs!hp-sdd!crash}!gryphon!pnet02!richard
INET: richard@pnet02.CTS.COMscotty@l5comp.UUCP (Scott Turner) (07/28/87)
In article <1057@gryphon.CTS.COM> richard@pnet02.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) writes: >$500 for a Mircocruft windows development kit, now thats draconian. Naw, draconian is $3500 for a OS/2 developers kit for the PS/2. You can then debug it for them, report the bugs, and then pay some more money to get to debug it again in the next round! Such a deal! :-) Scott Turner -- UUCP-stick: stride!l5comp!scotty | If you want to injure my goldfish just make UUCP-auto: scotty@l5comp.UUCP | sure I don't run up a vet bill. GEnie: JST | "The bombs drop in 5 minutes" R. Reagan "Pirated software? Just say *NO*!" S. Turner
robinson@renoir.Berkeley.EDU (Michael Robinson) (07/31/87)
In article <309@l5comp.UUCP> scotty@l5comp.UUCP (Scott Turner) writes: >In article <1057@gryphon.CTS.COM> richard@pnet02.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) writes: >>$500 for a Mircocruft windows development kit, now thats draconian. >Naw, draconian is $3500 for a OS/2 developers kit for the PS/2. You can then >debug it for them, report the bugs, and then pay some more money to get to >debug it again in the next round! As the originator of the "draconian" charge, I will repeat publicly what I have sent privately in response to numerous injured golfish. NeWS binaries for the Sun are, as far as I can tell, an unprecedented bargain (commercially speaking). Draconian is, in my mind, selling a Xylogics controller for almost twice the quantity one price from Xylogics, with the warantee slashed to 90 days from Xylogics' one year. Also, in my mind, it is draconian to charge $25,000 for an individual, non-profit source license, for the express purpose of making a port for personal use. A whole University can get a site license for $1000, but one person has to pay $25,000. Given that NeWS was originally intended to be public domain, it seems particularly extreme. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mike Robinson USENET: ucbvax!ernie!robinson ARPA: robinson@ernie.berkeley.edu
mjsagar@sandia.gov (9123 SAGARTZ, MATHIAS J.) (10/14/89)
Today's Wall Street Journal ran an article "Commodore Turns to Advertising in Attempt to Improve U.S. Sales." Text is as follows: Commodore International Ltd. unveiled its first significant ad campaign in years in its most daring move yet to turn arround lackluster U.S. operations. Commodore Chairman Irving Gould has long been skeptical of advertising. He fired Tom Rattigan as the personal-computer maker's chief executive two and a half years ago because, among other things, he thought Mr. Rattigan was planning to spend too much money on an advertising campaign. But Commodore - whose Commodore 64, a tiny personal computer, was once a major factor in the market - has seen its share of the U.S. market nearly disappear from charts of the U.S. Market. International Data Corp. said Commodore's share fell to 1% last year from 2.1% in 1987 and 3.6% in 1984. As a result, even though the parent company has stabilized after skirting bankruptcy four years ago, the U.S. subsidiary has only occasionally had a profitable quarter. So Harry Copperman, who became president of Commodore's U.S. operations in May has been allowed to give advertising a try. Commodore, based in West Chester Pa., will spend $15 million on advertising through year end, focused on its Amiga computer and aimed primarily at the consumer and education markets. It is also working on a campaign for early next year to bolster the Amiga's prospects in the business market. "The window of opportunity is getting small," said Mr. Copperman, a veteran of 22 years with International Business Machines Corp. and Apple Computer Inc. "I think Irving understands that this is his last chance to run for the roses." Mr. Copperman said he plans to narrow his focus to certain markets. Education is a major one, because he thinks IBM hasn't yet figured out that market and because Apple, the dominant force, is in a transition to persuade schools to move to the Macintosh from the Apple II. Commodore will also push into the home market, taking advantage of such features as the Amiga's ability to let people edit home movies. Mr. Copperman said he won't try to take on IBM and Apple head-on in the business market but thinks he can get in through the back door. He said the Amiga's slick graphics and ability to have more than one program running at once lend themselves to computerized, interactive training programs, for instance. "The view used to be that the Amiga was a general-purpose machine." he said. "It can be, but it's not ready to be positioned that way. There isn't the richness of software yet." Mr Copperman also said the company is taking the longer view on some of the advertising. He said the advertising isn't expected to pay for itself in the fourth quarter. Instead, he said he's hoping the ads will also help with such long-term problems as finding more national dealers that will carry the Amiga, a longstanding concern for Commodore. The ads themselves are slick, especially the television ads. Created by Messner Vetere Berger Carey Schmetterer, the ads feature a teen-ager named Stevie, a virtuoso on the Amiga who shows that it is "The Computer for the Creative Mind." In one ad, Stevie's parents answer the door and find three astronauts, including Buzz Aldrin, who want to talk to Stevie about plans for the new space station. Then Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorta calls for advice on his team's lineup. The Pointer Sisters arrive for help on their new album, followed quickly by composer Burt Bacharach, rock 'n' roll pioneer Little Richard and finally, formar House speaker Tip O'Neill. The print ads are a series of case studies of Amiga users, including jazz guitarist B.B. King, who writes music on it. That's it. For better of worse we're out of the closet. Can we perform? One final comment. If Apple doesn't vote old Irving Gould a big special bonus they are a bunch of low life ungrateful finks!
lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) (10/20/90)
In <6839@sugar.hackercorp.com>, peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >Well, I seem to recall an AmigaOS implementation being hung up on some sort >of licensing issues. How does that fit in with the "Open" bit? I am not sure of the details of the Ameristar port, and why it was hung up, but I can tell you that Sun did not charge any sort of fee whatsoever for implementations of NeWS that were completely developed from the spec. The only charges made for an implementation would have been levied if the Sun source code itself were used, and the charges would have been for a NeWS source license. This, to me, seems reasonable, and is similar to what you might expect from a shareware package (1 price for the executables, additional for the binary, and no charge for writing a clone of it). 'Open' doesn't necessarily mean that you give away your work. -larry -- It is not possible to both understand and appreciate Intel CPUs. -D.Wolfskill +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | // Larry Phillips | | \X/ lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips | | COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322 -or- 76703.4322@compuserve.com | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) (10/20/90)
Well, I seem to recall an AmigaOS implementation being hung up on some sort of licensing issues. How does that fit in with the "Open" bit? -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' <peter@sugar.hackercorp.com>.
rick@ameristar (Rick Spanbauer) (10/20/90)
In article <6839@sugar.hackercorp.com> peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >Well, I seem to recall an AmigaOS implementation being hung up on some sort >of licensing issues. How does that fit in with the "Open" bit? >-- >Peter da Silva. `-_-' ><peter@sugar.hackercorp.com>. We had a working version of NeWS running on the Amiga shortly after Sun released NeWS (ie pre NeWS 1.1 days). Our port was an engineering prototype; it was never released as a product. Rick Spanbauer Ameristar