mark@intek01.uucp (Mark McWiggins) (08/01/90)
larry@nstar.uucp (Larry Snyder) writes: >mark@intek01.uucp (Mark McWiggins) writes: >>Microport (+1 800 FOR UNIX) is back out of Chapter 11 (or whatever chapter >>they were in) and shipping a "developer's release" of SVR4 with the >>kitchen sink (TCP/IP, NFS, RFS, X, Streams, everything I can think of >>but DWB). I asked when and the guy said "now." Don't know what >>"devleoper's release" means ("buggy?" "don't even think of calling for >>support?" (1/2 :) ). Now for the bad news: it comes on tape only, and >>costs $2500. >$2500 for Microport - is that list price? Is there a discount >for VAR's and or developers? No discounts and no reselling for this release -- I called back and they said they're only SELLING to developers right now. He said it's for "those who want to get the jump on the competition" and that "we're shipping a lot." He said the "commercial release" plans aren't final yet, but probably would list for $1600 or so. I asked what's included in the "developer's release" and not in the "commercial release" and he said that decision hadn't been made yet. I also spoke again with a lady at UHC. She seemed a little more flexible in talking about VAR programs and whatnot, but it's all still up in the air. They're also not shipping until August 15. I got an insight from the UHC lady into the basis for these stratospheric prices: she said that AT&T is offering their SVR4 binary for $5000! I took this as a signal that AT&T doesn't want to be in the binary business anymore, but apparently UHC and the reborn Microport took it as a green light to price themselves right out of the market. I received a piece of E-mail from a guy claiming out that the sublicensing fees for V.4 are actually LOWER than those for V.3.2. I think I'd read this somewhere else, also; can someone post the True Facts? Also, it would really help if anyone from Everex, Dell, Interactive, and/or Intel would post some inkling of their plans. -- Mark McWiggins Integration Technologies, Inc. (Intek) +1 206 455 9935 DISCLAIMER: I could be wrong ... 1400 112th Ave SE #202 Bellevue WA 98004 uunet!intek01!mark Ask me about C++!
bill@alembic.acs.com (Bill Hatch) (08/02/90)
As a uport V386 owner -- i can not understand why anyone would even consider the purchase of a microport release when you can get open desktop , multi-user, sw dev system, DWB, and much more from SCO for about $2800. As per the recent news articles, microport wants $1600 to $2500 for a product "to be defined". bill hatch
paul@dialogic.com (The Imaginative Moron aka Joey Pheromone) (08/04/90)
In article <1990Aug2.003304.19278@alembic.acs.com> bill@alembic.acs.com (Bill Hatch) writes: >As a uport V386 owner -- i can not understand why anyone would even >consider the purchase of a microport release when you can get >open desktop , multi-user, sw dev system, DWB, and much more from >SCO for about $2800. As per the recent news articles, microport >wants $1600 to $2500 for a product "to be defined". > >bill hatch SVR4 is a very different beast from SVR3, which is what you would get from SCO. If you are a developer, with applications that would benefit from such new features, you want it ASAP. As a user, I wouldn't even *think* of getting SVR4 for at least a year -it'll take at least that long to even become stable, let alone have applications that specifically need it. Note that both supposed suppliers (microport & UHM (?)) were specifically *developer* releases. -- Paul Bennett | | "I give in, to sin, because Dialogic Corp. | paul@dialogic.com | You have to make this life 300 Littleton Road | ..!uunet!dialogic!paul | livable" Parsippany, NJ 07054 | | Martin Gore
aab@cichlid.com (Andrew A. Burgess) (08/04/90)
In article <1990Aug2.003304.19278@alembic.acs.com> bill@alembic.acs.com (Bill Hatch) writes: >As a uport V386 owner -- i can not understand why anyone would even >consider the purchase of a microport release when you can get >open desktop , multi-user, sw dev system, DWB, and much more from >SCO for about $2800. As per the recent news articles, microport >wants $1600 to $2500 for a product "to be defined". > >bill hatch Several things come to mind. One, SCO modifies (some would say mangles :)) the UNIX that they get from ATT (security, mmdf, microsoft C compiler). Two, SCO won't be upgrading to S5R4 for a while. They have said on the net (I believe) that they will add R4 functionality to their port of R3.2. I personally don't trust them to get things (BSD file system and utilities, job control, fill in the blank _____) as right as the real S5R4. People are interested in the little guys like Microport and ESIX because they can give you alot of bang for the buck. I paid about $1200 for a developers version of SCO S5R3.2 without X window. I would love to know how much ESIX S5R4 will be. Now, you can apparently get a two user version of ESIX S5R3.2 with X for $400 and uucp the gcc development tools for free. Andy -- Andy Burgess Consulting Software Engineer uunet!silma!cichlid!aab aab@cichlid.com
bill@alembic.acs.com (Bill Hatch) (08/05/90)
In article <1990Aug3.214737.7651@cichlid.com> aab@cichlid.com (Andrew A. Burgess) writes: >I would love to know how much ESIX S5R4 will be. Now, you can apparently >get a two user version of ESIX S5R3.2 with X for $400 and uucp the gcc >development tools for free. I think that you need a local c colpiler like cc to install gcc from scratch (with ld, and ar). You also need the c libraries libc.a and libm.a from your SW development kit inorder to use gcc. There is no free sw development kit from the free software foundation; they do offer some nice extensions to your existing sw development kit. bill hatch