ggondor@cedar.pfc.forestry.ca (Guy Gondor) (06/07/91)
Greetings: We have been trying to purchase a InfoServer 100. It is impossible to get a single story from a Digital Rep. We have talked to at least 2 sales reps, 2 techs, 1 tele-sales rep and checked an electronic bulletin board all providing different stories. Our immediate problem is determining what will happen to our license costs. We have been told we would see cost savings but today another Digital rep phoned and advised me our license costs will increase. Our problem is that we have numerous Vax's across Canada, belonging to a single organization. We have right-to-copy licenses for our software, but Digital is now saying that if you want to buy the consolidated software, you have to discontinue the right-to-copy license and buy a license with full support (you may be able to get away without phone support). In fact, this same Digital sales rep mentioned that Digital plans to disolve all other forms of media distribution in the next year or two, and disolve right-to-copy licenses. This will undoubtly result in additional equipment purchases and for some, additional dollars to pay for annual software maintenance and support. I agree with having media available on CD-Rom only. Sun is doing it, but they are also offering sites CD Roms at a reduced cost, and a reduction in software license costs. It appears Digital is pricing themselves out of the market. Does anyone have any comments on this or heard anything similiar ? Does someone in Digital who really does know something about the InfoServer and license implications care to address this ? -- Guy Gondor Internet: ggondor@PFC.Forestry.CA
gwlester@cpu.com (Gerald Lester) (06/07/91)
I can speak for what is valid in the U.S., Canada (any any other country) is a different ball of wax. In the U.S. CD Rom gives you the Media. You must still by some type of "support" to be able to legally apply it. "Right-to-copy" gives you the right to make a single copy the MEDIA or a subset thereof. I.E. you need some level of support for each NODE. Self-maintenance is in the catalogs and you may be able to get a quote on it. The problem is that Digital is going through a re-org and may be internally confused on this/these issues. DECUS (U.S.) has at least two (2) groups interested in this issue, you may want to get involved with them. They are the Business Practices (BP) UIG and the Third Providers Party (3P) SIG. You can send mail to the following person if you are interested in working in this area: mayhew@dcs.decus.org Gerald W. Lester Third Party Provider's Communication Committe Representative
grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins) (06/08/91)
In article <1991Jun7.024621.8218@cedar.pfc.forestry.ca> ggondor@cedar.pfc.forestry.ca (Guy Gondor) writes: > Greetings: > > We have been trying to purchase a InfoServer 100. It is impossible to > get a single story from a Digital Rep. ... > I agree with having media available on CD-Rom only. Sun is doing it, > but they are also offering sites CD Roms at a reduced cost, and a > reduction in software license costs. It appears Digital is pricing > themselves out of the market. Does anyone have any comments on this > or heard anything similiar ? Does someone in Digital who really does > know something about the InfoServer and license implications care to > address this ? Well, I just got some junk mail from DEC today advertising a deal that combined the the el-cheapo single slot CDROM drive with ultrix media and on-line doc. Admittedly, you need a SCSI capable workstation to hang the thing on and I don't know whether a parallel offer will be avaiable for VMS or if this is just an apology for not having Ultrix support for the infoserver (yet?)... -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing: domain: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com Commodore, Engineering Department phone: 215-431-9349 (only by moonlite)
jeh@cmkrnl.uucp (06/08/91)
In article <22268@cbmvax.commodore.com>, grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins) writes: > Well, I just got some junk mail from DEC today advertising a deal that > combined the the el-cheapo single slot CDROM drive with ultrix media > and on-line doc. Admittedly, you need a SCSI capable workstation to > hang the thing on and I don't know whether a parallel offer will be > avaiable for VMS or if this is just an apology for not having Ultrix > support for the infoserver (yet?)... How much? Speaking of Ultrix... rumor hathit that the Berzerkely folks (including their legal department) have decided that there isn't any AT&T code left in BSD 4.4... ... so it's gonna be REAL CHEAP. Like a few hundred dollars for tapes. Worth getting just to play around with, if you have a spare disk you can turn into a Unix bootable volume. --- Jamie Hanrahan, Kernel Mode Consulting, San Diego CA Chair, VMS Internals Working Group, U.S. DECUS VAX Systems SIG Internet: jeh@dcs.simpact.com, hanrahan@eisner.decus.org, or jeh@crash.cts.com Uucp: ...{crash,scubed,decwrl}!simpact!cmkrnl!jeh
lhotka@incstar.com (06/10/91)
ggondor@cedar.pfc.forestry.ca (Guy Gondor) writes: > Greetings: > > We have been trying to purchase a InfoServer 100. It is impossible to > get a single story from a Digital Rep. We have talked to at least 2 > sales reps, 2 techs, 1 tele-sales rep and checked an electronic > bulletin board all providing different stories. > > Our immediate problem is determining what will happen to our license costs. We found that it was difficult to get good answers from Digital as well... In the end we sat down with our account rep who does the service contract work and had her really run out the numbers. In our case (we are in the U.S.) we are saving some money in media costs and have retained our right to copy so we can use the software on our other machine. I went through virtually the same stuff though - conflicting reports about what was what and how it worked and how much it would cost and what version of VMS was needed, and ... I think the trick is to quit talking to the sales reps and go talk to the person who handles your service contract. They should be able to give you the real story with less sales hype and pressures. That is pretty much true for any company - the sales force rarely gives the full story if they even have it, but if you can reach the real people in the company you can get some good service. Rockford Lhotka INCSTAR Corp Applications Project Leader 1990 Industrial Blvd lhotka@incstar.com PO Box 285 612/779-1701 Stillwater, MN 55082 >>>Amiga - The computer for the creative mind<<<