Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!ico!rcd From: rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386 Subject: Re: Interactive UNIX 2.2 (really V.3 and V.4) Summary: how soon is soon??? Message-ID: <1990May31.051750.27155@ico.isc.com> Date: 31 May 90 05:17:50 GMT References: <7820@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <40800013@uicsl.csl.uiuc.edu> <1242@wet.UUCP> Organization: Interactive Systems Corporation, Boulder, CO Lines: 59 capslock@wet.UUCP (Allen Crider) writes: > Amazing to see Interactive charge such prices for their upgrade... As for upgrade prices...without analyzing the costs and benefits (and certainly not acting as a spokesman for Interactive!), I can note that the upgrades add online manual pages (which involves a licensing issue) and the new manuals for the heavily-used stuff are looseleaf. There's more to it than that, but I'll leave it to someone *not* connected with ISC to make some detailed comparisons. >...SystemV.4 is overdue now--how are they going to compete when it > finally hits the streets?... Depends on when it hits the streets and what it looks like when it gets there, doesn't it?!? 2.2 is a release for now--*right* now, today, when you've got a machine sitting there and you need an OS. I haven't seen a firm release date for V.4 from anyone. Everybody's looking at it and working hard on it, but that's nowhere near to promising the ship date. I can suggest how someone with a V.3 product will compete when V.4 comes out: They'll be selling an established, stable release against a new product. They may also be selling a system which, although it has fewer features, also uses fewer machine resources. Sure, V.3 will go away eventually, but it's not going to happen in 3Q90! There are people who need a working system today, not a promise. As for what V.4 offers: Yes, there are lots of new features (and old features the BSD world has that we want...there are days I'd kill for long file names). Are those features free? Of course not. What are the tradeoffs? Are they worthwhile for everybody? Perhaps not. Now, I'm out on a limb here, but I can see big users (government, research, industry) wanting V.4 right away, but small users (home machines, little companies) holding off for a bit. Maybe not; maybe the incremental cost isn't that much...but it's something to think about. > I'd advise anyone who can stand the wait to wait for V.4... How long are you advising them to wait? If somebody's got a plan for the distant future (let's say mid-91 or beyond), he can afford the gamble of waiting. If he's looking at early 91, there will probably be V.4's out there, but how stable will they be? If he's looking at late 90, it might work out but *I* wouldn't write a business plan based on it. And, mind you, none of this is based on any real knowledge of how V.4 is coming along. I hear bits of stuff; I read the trade press carefully... but most of what I'm saying is simple observation: You don't assume a system is "just around the corner" until you start hearing about major beta shipments to happy people. In short, if you must have the two-way sneeze-through wind vents, star- studded mud guards, edible sponge steering column, and chrome fender dents, AND you can afford to wait some amount of time, not yet determined but definitely measured in months, wait for V.4. If you need a stable OS today, but without some of the stuff you'd like, go with V.3. (That advice has nothing much to do with ISC's systems...it could just as well be said about SCO, ESIX, etc.) -- Dick Dunn rcd@ico.isc.com uucp: {ncar,nbires}!ico!rcd (303)449-2870 ...Simpler is better.