chenr@tilt.UUCP (Raymond Chen) (05/06/84)
There's just one problem with this. It's a *ROM* !! How many of you out there would like to run your VAXens with most of UNIX on a ROM? Consider the number of unfixable bugs. It would make a great distribution medium, but five years (hopefully less) from now, when I have a VAX+ class machine sitting on my desk, I want to run the *smallest* amount of straight, canned software I can get away with. Call me spoiled, but I've gotten to *like* having the source code on- line. I don't hack it (unless I can't avoid it), but it's nice to know that I can, since there always seems to be one more major bug. (Remember the vi modeline feature?) For crying out loud, you couldn't even use a binary debugger. At the current prices, I don't think the additional storage would be worth the additional frustation. Now, a half-gigabyte RAM would be something worth looking into. Read/write players are out, but they're only one-time writes. Still, if the price of disks came down low enough, that wouldn't be bad (when the price of the r/w players come down. They are *expensive*.). By the way, I read an earlier rumor about IBM going the secrecy road with its successors to the PC. That would positively make me want to p***, excuse me. I own a PC, and the thing I like most about it is the documentation. How many other micros give you BIOS listings, instructions and examples on how to write and install custom device drivers, full documentation on the graphics chip, etc.? I can see it, five years from now. A blue, sealed box with the IBM logo on it, running half a gigabyte of unalterable IBM software. Ugh. Pardon me, but I'm feeling a little sick... Source licenses are wonderful things... -- The preceding message was brought to you by -- Ray Chen princeton!tilt!chenr
markh@tekig1.UUCP (05/08/84)
Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site houti.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 (Tek) 9/26/83; site tekig1.UUCP Message-ID: <1636@tekig1.UUCP> Date: Mon, 7-May-84 22:04:36 EDT tilt.UUCP> Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR Lines: 16 <"...we're just a habit, like sacharrine..." P. Simon> To !tilt!chenr 's lament about the CD being a ROM and thus having marginal utility I can only react with amazement...When was the last time you corrected a typo in a book or magazine? Did the existence of that typo ruin the book? Possibly, but not likely. Think of the utility of having the entire contents of the The Encyclopedia Brittanica on line? or all the cookbooks you ever wanted? or professional references (law libraries?)? I sincerely doubt that the possibilities have escaped Big Blue...and I sure don't expect to see anything as hacked up as OS source or object (ANYBODY'S) on a ROM. (With, naturally, the exception of the stuff which makes all this primitve hardware perform in a civilized manner...my terminal, f'rinstance.)
STERNLIGHT@USC-ECL.ARPA (05/10/84)
From: STERNLIGHT <STERNLIGHT@USC-ECL.ARPA> Jeez, you guys. How many copies of Michala Petri playing Babell Sonatas on the recorder do you think Phillips sold worldwide on CD? 1000? 10000?? How many copies of Wordstar or 1-2-3 have been sold? But the economics were such that Phillips released Petri on CD once they had the LP masters. Once you have the masters, the production cost of CD's must be a lot less than the $12 per unit they sell them for in the U.K. or the $15.99 Tower records sells them for here. So someone is sure to find a way to modify the masters (remember, we're talking high-speed audiotape here) quickly and cheaply for bug fixes. Can you imagine getting all your software upgraded for $16.99? We pay more than that for 1 program upgrade. (Of course they'll charge more, depending on supply and demand; the costs of production also fall on the CD entirely here. But I am making a feasibility point.) Not only that, but the economics are such that you could sell people CD's with lots of software on it they don't even need (as well as that they do) for a very good price. Then you have them in the market for all the upgrades to get the upgrade to the software they use (remember, it's all on the same CD) and a hell of a big market base for that CD as a result. Thus the costs of the bug fixes as well as production of the CD would be spread over a very large market base. Let's suppose that the total market for the CD were as low as 50,000 . At $50 to get all your bugs fixed as of a certain date, that's $2.5 million. Take off about $5 as a generous estimate of the physical production costs per disk and you still have $2.25 million for the bug fixers. If there are 20 serious programs on the CD (plus a lot of trivial stuff and stuff without identified bugs at that time, that's $112,500 per program to be split between the bug fixers and the operators of the system. You could even introduce upgrades in some of the programs for that money to make the $50 price irresistible. Looks like a good business to me. Even the cost of the documentation isn't a problem--just put it all on the same CD. Even if IBM hasn't got the least idea of doing it this way, how's that for a business plan for someone? --david-- -------
broehl@wateng.UUCP (Bernie Roehl) (05/18/84)
I suspect that the CD's will be used for databases and the like, rather
than program distribution. I mean, even with sources and all, Unix isn't
pushing a gigabyte! More likely it will be the Encylopedia Britannica or
the OED that gets put on CD, not software.
--
-Bernie Roehl (University of Waterloo)henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (05/20/84)
Bernie Roehl comments, in part:
.......................... I mean, even with sources and all, Unix isn't
pushing a gigabyte! .............
Just wait for 4.3BSD, if 4.2 is anything to judge by... :-(
--
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry