Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!romp!auschs!awdprime!doorstop.austin.ibm.com!tif From: tif@doorstop.austin.ibm.com (Paul Chamberlain) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Un*X cost Message-ID: <4110@awdprime.UUCP> Date: 2 Nov 90 16:02:05 GMT References: <2176@lupine.NCD.COM> <42310@mips.mips.COM> <43029@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> <2804@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <1481@frapper.nsc.com> <3686@skye.ed.ac.uk> <0093F120.38 Sender: news@awdprime.UUCP Reply-To: tif@doorstop.austin.ibm.com (Paul Chamberlain) Organization: IBM AWD, Austin, TX Lines: 25 Summary: Expires: Sender: Followup-To: Keywords: sysmgr@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU (Doug Mohney) writes: >In article <3686@skye.ed.ac.uk>, richard@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Richard Tobin) writes: >>With luck, within a year or so, they may be two industrial-strength >>free Unixes available - GNU, from the Free Software Foundation, and >>4.4-detox (ie BSD "detoxified" - with the AT&T code removed). >But who will provide support for GNU & the 4.4? Will there be independent >consulting firms started up which charge $$$$/hour for support of these OSes? I'd like to think that the big impact of such things would be to the guy that just bought a 386 home computer and is willing to learn Unix to get its benefits but doesn't want to pay $1000 when he can get dos for $40 or so. Nobody really supports dos, they just release a new version now and then. Somebody will take one of these free Unixes and provide binaries for common machines for minimal cost. No support is necessary, just make the next version available at about the same price. Those that need support (what does that mean anyway -- quick bug fixes or questions answered or new functions or what) will pay a higher price, just like they do now but not as high since source licenses aren't involved. Heck, maybe I'll do it. Paul Chamberlain | I do NOT represent IBM. tif@doorstop, sc30661 at ausvm6 512/838-7008 | ...!cs.utexas.edu!ibmchs!auschs!doorstop.austin.ibm.com!tif