james@bigtex.cactus.org (James Van Artsdalen) (11/17/90)
In <1990Nov15.225728.16481@cbnewsm.att.com>, ste@cbnewsm.att.com (Shaun T. Erickson) wrote: > I called Dell last week and told them that I had a Swan 386/25 that > I was considering running Dell's Unix on. I asked if they would > support it on this machine, or would they say "Sorry, it's not a Dell > machine, so tough luck!". Or, "I'm sorry to hear that sir, may I send you our catalog?" :-) > The gentleman went off line to speak with his supervisor and when he > came back he said that they would indeed support it - quote "If we > sell it, we will support it.". This would indicate to me that Dell > would provide more than "minimal or non-existent" support. > Which is correct? The correct answer is that Dell will not guarantee Dell unix on non-Dell hardware. You can order it for a non-Dell machine, but if your tape drive doesn't work or whatever, the answer might well be to just return Dell unix for a refund (standard 30 day trial). Originally, with the SysVr3 product, Dell unix was not sold on non-Dell machines, even though it generally worked. The logic was strictly based on support cost - *any* vendor will tell you that support is expensive. By sticking with Dell hardware, we stuck with machines we knew, and equally important, we could test relevant configurations before releasing product. There were a considerable number of people who wanted to buy the SysVr3 product anyway. Hence we will sell SysVr4 to those people, but we will try to avoid unlimited support commitments. In other words, we'll sell Dell unix to someone with a Swan 386/25, but we're not going to go to the cost of buying a Swan 386/25 and validating & guaranteeing that it runs Dell unix. The 30 day return policy gives you a chance to test it out. I should point out that I'm just a lowly BIOS hack - I'm not part of any unix group at Dell. I'm watching from the sidelines to see how this all works out - it's a delicate balance between keeping the cost down and the support up. -- James R. Van Artsdalen james@bigtex.cactus.org "Live Free or Die" Dell Computer Co 9505 Arboretum Blvd Austin TX 78759 512-338-8789