Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!ico!ism780c!support
From: support@ism780c.isc.com (Support  account)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: Online Manual needed (was Re: ISC vs SCO UNIX review)
Message-ID: <36485@ism780c.isc.com>
Date: 15 Nov 89 23:18:16 GMT
References: <5866@dime.cs.umass.edu> <1989Oct27.164926.14713@world.std.com> <36311@ism780c.isc.com> <111055@nstar.UUCP>
Reply-To: support@ism780c.UUCP (Support  account)
Organization: Interactive Systems Corp., Santa Monica CA
Lines: 39

In article <111055@nstar.UUCP> larry@nstar.UUCP (Larry Snyder) writes:
>What will the update policy be for those who have purchased previous
>versions of your product and did not purchase the annual support?  I called
>Brian @ ISC in Hollis and he mentioned that there is no update policy for
>those customers not on annual support or for those running past the
>initial support period of 30 days.  The only option for upgrading is
>to re-purchase the product at the current price.
>

Further information on upgrades from INTERACTIVE:

This message is to clarify the concern stated by Larry Snyder in his 13
November posting.  INTERACTIVE's standard update policy is to provide update
releases to existing customers at replacement cost.  Replacement cost
includes media, manufacturing, distribitution, and royalty expenses as
applicable.  No additional margins are allocated to update releases.

Therefore, the statement from Hollis support is correct (if slightly
misleading) in that updates are not discounted (since there is no margin to
discount).  However, updates are always substantially cheaper than regular
releases since they consist of only those components updated on the base
release, and may not contain complete documentation or software.

INTERACTIVE Distribution in Hollis provides two additional update services
for its customers:  1. If a customer purchases software and an update is
released during the warranty period, INTERACTIVE Distribution will supply the
update free of charge.  2. If a customer purchases the optional Response/ix
support package, they will receive a 50% discount on any update software
during the term of the support program.  This means they will be able to
purchase the software update at a price less than the actual replacement
cost.

Regarding the update for customers moving from 386/ix OS Release 2.0.2 to
2.2, pricing has not been set and manufacturing costs are still being
finalized.  However, the update pricing for this release will follow the
replacement cost rule, and while the update will include much of the complete
OS software and documentation, it will be designed to work as an _u_p_d_a_t_e to
_e_x_i_s_t_i_n_g installations of 386/ix and its fee will remain considerably below
that purchasing a new 386/ix Release 2.2 OS.