Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpcc05!hp-ptp!hp-ses!hpsdel!orac!wunder
From: wunder@orac.HP.COM (Walter Underwood)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: Free Updates ? (Was Re: Questions about HPUX 8.0, X11R4, HP policy)
Message-ID: <2890008@orac.HP.COM>
Date: 19 Dec 90 18:18:06 GMT
References: <1990Dec13.100152@dali.gatech.edu>
Organization: HP Software Engineering Systems, Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 15

>   But why doesn't HP provide the untested code
>   as "user supported" ?

Mostly because we'd be shipping the same code as is available from
MIT, but much later.  For code that we extend, debug, and speed up,
like the X server, it makes sense to ship it a few months later than
the MIT release.  But for the Athena Widgets?  MIT can make tapes
for the same money that we'd charge, and they can ship it months
earlier.

In a larger sense, it is just not clear that tapes are a good
mechanism for contributed software.  Personally, I'd like to see
network distribution for the contrib stuff, and forget the tapes.

wunder