wnp@dcs.UUCP (Wolf N. Paul) (01/22/89)
In article <657@pcrat.UUCP> rick@pcrat.UUCP (Rick Richardson) writes: >And then there's the Prentice Hall UNIX System V/386 series. Only a couple >of months ago I made my final 'payment' to own the complete set. I >can remember wondering if they expected these manuals to last through >all those releases. I guessed that they would come out with addenda >volumes to describe the changes in 3.2 and maybe again in 4.0. > >Boy, was I wrong! There's a whole new set of manuals for System V/386, >*release 3.2*. Same high prices, and I didn't see anything like an >upgrade for the original set. I haven't even cracked open some of >the manuals and they're now obsolete! That has been one of the major sore points with MINIX users: Prentice-Hall, like all other book publishers, has no concept of reduced-price upgrades. In the book trade, there is no such thing as an upgrade. You want the latest edition of a work you already own -- well, go and buy it! That's because (a) new editions cost as much to produce for an upgrade as for a fresh sale, and (b) book royalty contracts usually are based on number of copies sold, whether the buyer already had an earlier edition or not. And P-H, even when dealing with software (MINIX) or software docs (UNIX, etc.) is still a traditional book publisher. Software royalty contracts, on the other hand, often have provisions to pay a royalty per LICENSEE, rather than per copy of the media. Thus, the publisher does not pay another royalty for each upgrade he sells to an existing user. -- Wolf N. Paul * 3387 Sam Rayburn Run * Carrollton TX 75007 * (214) 306-9101 UUCP: killer!dcs!wnp ESL: 62832882 DOMAIN: dcs!wnp@killer.dallas.tx.us TLX: 910-380-0585 EES PLANO UD