gnu@toad.com (05/30/90)
When Sun wanted to charge me $700 to "upgrade my SunOS Right-To-Use license from 4.0.3c to 4.1", in addition to the $350 for media and $600 for manuals, I started checking around. Customer Support Product Marketing assured me that the charge was usual, though it happens I'd never paid it before due to hardware upgrades that came with new SunOS releases. But when I actually pulled out my RTU license (two pages of legalese that came in a plastic pouch on the outside of the box containing the monitor, for my SS-1), it said I was licensed for "those data processing programs set forth in the Sun US Price List...and any derivative works thereof, including modifications, enhancements, and extensions, made by or for Sun...". It sounded to me like SunOS 4.1 was a modified, enhanced and extended version of SunOS 4.0.3c, and after checking around, Sun Legal and Sun management agreed with me. Doug Nelson in Sun Legal is spreading the word within the company that the alleged RTU License Upgrades are not necessary and that Sun policy is that if you're licensed to run SunOS, you're licensed to run *any version* of SunOS. If your sales rep or your customer support contacts don't believe it, send them to Doug. He's at +1 415 336 6118. Note that if you buy the SunCD drive before August 31, they throw in SunOS 4.1 media free. They also gave you a discount on the RTU upgrade. You never did need to buy the RTU upgrade, so don't pay an extra $350 for nothing if you take the CD deal. The price comparison is now $995 for drive+4.1 on CD versus $350 for 4.1 on tape. Note the CD holds all four versions of 4.1 (Sun-3 and three different SPARC releases), so you could actually save money if you need more than two of the tapes. For single tape customers, $645 is better than $1200 for the drive, but is still not very close to the $200 you can buy a good audio CD player for. And this one doesn't even have a PLAY button! The order number for the RTU upgrade was quoted to me as USX-00F. This is the thing you DON'T need to order. If you find it on your orders, cancel it immediately to save $700. You might talk to your Sun account rep about any previous RTU upgrades you paid for, too... John Gilmore gnu@toad.com Cygnus Support commercial support for free software