brunner@bullhead.uucp (12/08/90)
I'm considering a change in how IBM's version of Berkeley Unix for the PC/RT is supported and some of the questions I need to answer have to do with phone support and billing. Before describing what we are discussing let me describe what it is that I do. IBM/4.3 (aka "AOS" and "ACIS") began as a port of 4.2bsd to the RT, done by programmers at IBM's Page Mill Road, Palo Alto facility, then part of the ACIS organization (now generally known as the IBM part of the NSFNET group). Broadly speaking, IBM/4.3 is a faithfull port of 4.3bsd to the RT, with two significant non-IBM added features, CMU's Andrew File System (AFS) and X11. It runs on the RT and the PS/2 model 60, which also runs DOS, with what is referred to as the "cross bow" (RISC) processor card. It is _only_ available in source form to Academic sites (over 100). Bottom line, this is Berkeley Unix with the best of CMU and MIT (as of 1988), on IBM gear. When I began what was a six month contract to support this release and to aid the user community prior to and during their transition to IBM's strategic product -- AIX 3.1 on the RS/6000, the customers were supposed to maintain a uucp link to a machine at Palo Alto, and bug reports (APARS) and their fixes were propogated via notes (see User Contributed Software for details on notes and notesfiles). Updates of third party compiler binaries were also propogated via uucp. For several reasons I decided to utilize the comp.sys.ibm.pc.rt newgroup for bug reporting and for distribution of forward context difference patches and complete minor source trees (shar files). This was well recieved by the IBM/4.3 users. In June of this year IBM announced the withdrawal of support for this product, effective 22 December. Since the introduction of AIX 3.1 and the RS/6000, and in particular during the past two weeks, the case has been made that some or all of the existing IBM/4.3 RT sites have not yet fully transitioned to AIX 3.1 on the RS/6000, and some limited support may be offered. It is accidental that I seem to be the key person in this activity, my contract began in May 1989, and was extended twice. The other contractors who had "corporate knowedge" have since gone on to other work, and the original Palo Alto developers have since taken up other work and cannot be allocated to this task. I could be replaced, but it wouldn't make a lot of sense one way or the other. We are agreed that some sites may be willing to pay a flat fee for a year's further support, $1,000 is the figure under consideration. Getting X11.r4 is the sweetener for these sites, as is the possibility that IBM may allow me to distribute some new work (e.g., 4.3 RENO networking, device driver improvements, etc.) to be distributed, somewhat to the detriment of the RS/6000 transition plan. For sites which do not choose to pay a flat fee, a 900 number has been proposed. For those that do choose the flat fee, an 800 number will be available. Several questions associated with 900 number service arise, which is my reason for making this posting. If we set up a 900 number for non-flat-rate-payers, incoming support calls are easy, but what about email and phone calls from me to the college which originated the email? Can I generate a sort of reverse 900 billing? How can I set up a system that will both satisfy IBM's requirements and best meet my user's needs, while opperating what is in a sense, a mini-version of mt. Xinu? What telecom gear will I need to obtain to support this -- for the functional portion of support, modems and a uucp/internet addressable host, my present knowledge is sufficient -- but not for the proposed billing system . As a pre-post-script, it is not obvious that a large number of customer sites will be willing to allocate money for support of a machine so broadly depricated (I like the RT, and there is a growing "home market" for RT's displaced by RS/6000's and other boxes, but that is irrelevant), and it is rather unfortunate in my mind at least, that it presently seems unlikely that I will be able to offer 4.4bsd next summer in binary form to the RT owners who are not source licensed by AT&T and the Regents of UC Berkeley, so I'm not asking a "big business" question. Nevertheless, I suppose the same set of concerns and questions would arise for anyone considering setting up a smallish support business. I've been sitting on a series of APAR closures (bug fixes) and enhancements, the absence of which may have lowered my user's expectations, for almost two months, mostly because personal family matters have been something of a distraction. I wish I could let the IBM/4.3 users know, but I'll make these distibutions via the news group comp.sys.ibm.pc.rt prior to 22 January, which is the final cut-off date for fixes and quiet enhancements (e.g., current AFS and X11 release levels). I'm located either in Palo Alto, internal to IBM and behind their ROLM gear, or in some sunny small office leased in Mountain View, within a few hundred yards for an 1ESS equiped CO (PacBell is the IEC), and less than a mile from Alternet's "point of presence". If external, I'll use Telebit's T2500's for data at 19.2kbs for running AFS over slip to several local sites and uucp for the obvious links, perhaps a "Net Blazer" which my friends and former fellow IBM/4.3-contractors Charlie Slater and Mark Lewis have worked on, as well as seeking decent connectivity (56Kb) to either Alternet or the local NSFNET regional, BARRNET. While this isn't terrifically relevant, IBM/4.3 with some modifications (Tahoe networking and a better token-ring driver) is what runs on the present generation of NSFNET Nodal Switching Systems, which are clusters of RT's. NSS13 is at Stanford. Thanks in advance all telecom readers! Your answers to my obvious questions and to questions not obvious to me are appreciated. Please help keep IBM's most user-appreciated (academic) Unix product alive in 1991! It is not strategic, simply appreciated. #include <std/disclaimer.h> Eric Brunner, Consultant, IBM AWD Palo Alto (415) 855-4486 inet: brunner@monet.berkeley.edu uucp: uunet!ibmsupt!brunner