keith@mips.COM (Keith Garrett) (05/10/89)
In article <425@unicads.UUCP> les@unicads.UUCP (Les Milash) writes: >>In article <658@pitstop.West.Sun.COM> (Adrian Cockcroft) writes: >>there is also the issue of applications sw. >>"SPARC has over 500 applications" > [stuff about how easy it should be to port to unix box X, and questions about the significance of application counts] >more like "hey they sold 20 million boxes to detroit last year, let's port >to that" and if it's unix with C then we do it. [ more stuff deleted ] The problem is not just the cost of porting an application, although that can be significant. the real cost is in support afterwards. This includes fixing obscure bugs (ie bugs not found during the port), but most of the cost is in testing each new release for each of the boxes the application is on. The cost of testing can be amortized over the copies sold for a given box, so sw vendors like to have a reasonable user base before they port to a given box. What this means to the average user is that if <your favorite application> is not already ported to whizbang unix platform X *NOW*, there is no guarantee that it ever will be ported. IMO new system purchases are influenced as much by available software as by price/performance or raw performance for most users. thats why unix box builders make such a big deal about # of applications. -- Keith Garrett "This is *MY* opinion, OBVIOUSLY" UUCP: keith@mips.com or {ames,decwrl,prls}!mips!keith USPS: Mips Computer Systems,930 Arques Ave,Sunnyvale,Ca. 94086