mdr@reed.UUCP (Mike Rutenberg) (11/02/88)
In article <4038@encore.UUCP> bzs@encore.com (Barry Shein) writes: >From: mdr@reed.UUCP (Mike Rutenberg) >>NeXT's distribution method for formatted system disks will break new >>ground for the computer industry, it being currently hard >>to buy AT&T derived Unix in the bookstore for $50, including the disk. [...] > >I believe binary distributions are tied to a CPU, not a disk, so as >long as each machine has a license it's ok, the fact that there's more >than one disk image isn't necessarily unusual. I'll assume you can't >buy a NeXT w/o an AT&T binary license. I could imagine AT&T changing >that though and charging some copying fee, it obviously is of some >value to NeXT's way of doing business (let's face it, it's contracts, >not science, they can make it up as they go along...er...unlike >science :-) All of the world's Suns run SunOS, but I have the feeling that it would throw some lawyers (not just from Sun) into a tizzy if you sold copies SunOS distribution tapes in the bookstore for just over media cost. I'm sure that at some point that might be a doable thing, but currently there are no mechanisms to do it, at least in what I know of standard unix binary licenses. SunOS only runs on Suns and NeXTos only runs on NeXTs. But they both run AT&T unix code. I need to be able to buy a system disk from the bookstore in order to effectively use the NeXT machine to type up my answers to those nasty math problem sets. And I hope I don't have to prove that each of the machines in the public lab have the right license (as well as my roommate's machine). Mike