Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!att!bellcore!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!shelby!decwrl!sgi!msc@ramoth.esd.sgi.com
From: msc@ramoth.esd.sgi.com (Mark Callow)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: X11 development
Summary: You get what you pay for....
Keywords: X11, Xlib
Message-ID: <41160@sgi.sgi.com>
Date: 30 Aug 89 23:21:31 GMT
References: <11325@polya.Stanford.EDU>
Sender: msc@ramoth.esd.sgi.com
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 34

In article <11325@polya.Stanford.EDU>, ramani@modesty.Stanford.EDU (Ramani Pichumani) writes:
> 
> We have recently installed 3.1G on our 4D machines and are interested
> in developing X11-based applications.  Apparently, SGI ships a
> development version of X windows which is purchased separately.  Since
> X is public domain and has already been ported to many machines, it
> seems rather odd that SGI is charging $$$$ for something which is
> obtained for free on Sun, DEC and HP workstations.  I am wondering if
> anyone else has already ported Xlib, etc, to the 4D's and if so, they
> can make their code patches available to other users.
> 
We charge for the development option because:

	a) it includes a set of manuals that costs us a lot of money
	b) we support it - i.e. we pay people to port it and fix bugs in
	   it

If you want the "free" (MIT copyrighted, not public domain) version then get
it from MIT, port it and print your own documentation.

DEC and Sun both charge for their X products.  You have to pay money to DEC
to get any software for the 3100 beyond the basic UNIX with a dumb terminal
emulator.  Sun charges a licence fee for X11/NeWS (I'm pretty sure they
do anyway).  I expect that as Sun rolls over to X11/NeWS as the default window
system on their systems they will come up with a strategy similar to ours.
I don't know about HP but I expect they charge for their products too.

One of the great myths about X is that it is free.  It is only free if you
are capable of doing software development, have network access payed for by
someone else, and have time to spare.


--
	-Mark