Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!ico!vail!rcd From: rcd@ico.ISC.COM (Dick Dunn) Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386 Subject: Re: 1-2 vs unlimited licenses (Unix for a 386) Message-ID: <16043@vail.ICO.ISC.COM> Date: 25 Aug 89 20:47:18 GMT References: <1989Aug16.020438.5662@esegue.uucp> <7186@megatest.UUCP> Organization: Interactive Systems Corp, Boulder, CO Lines: 44 pcg@thor.cs.aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi) writes: > My dim remembrance is that the AT&T royalty is (depending on > volume) under $50 for 1-2 users and under $150 for unlimited > (complete system, I think)... I don't know the exact numbers either, so we ought to check that before going too much farther. Remember that this is for the V.3.2 licensing. >...Note that the entire AT&T royalty is under 10% of the 386/ix > selling price, i.e. just a fraction of the likely margin that > ISC has on it. I think you may have a somewhat exaggerated idea of our margins...but be that as it may. The AT&T royalty itself looks small, but that's what we pay AT&T--so it's an unburdened cost. To analyze the proportion of cost due to AT&T royalty fairly, you need to refigure with some magical margin multiplier (which I don't know and certainly couldn't quote in public even if I did). I don't think this explains all the difference, though I won't know until we have the real license costs. >... Has by any chance ISC hacked the protocol recognized by the X > server so that it is now compatible only with their > libraries, incidentally destroying interoperability? No. But there's more than a hint of contentiousness in that question; why do you ask it that way? (Is it just that you think for the price we charge, we must have screwed around with it?:-) Is there some reason to doubt that our X software would interoperate with others? > Otherwise, is there any *compelling* technical reason > to buy the X library binaries from ISC for $795 instead > of getting the sources with which everybody is already > quite pleased from any friend for free? If you don't think we've added value in what we provide--or, for that matter, if you don't think what we've added is worth the price--then go ahead! I don't think that anyone in ISC is going to quarrel that you've got a free choice there; I'm not even going to try a hard sell. I would suggest that you spend a little time to see what you'd get from us and whether it's of sufficient value to you. -- Dick Dunn rcd@ico.isc.com uucp: {ncar,nbires}!ico!rcd (303)449-2870 ...Are you making this up as you go along?