Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!motcid!yeates From: yeates@motcid.UUCP (Tony J Yeates) Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms Subject: Re: Windows installation disk compression? Message-ID: <5797@iron6.UUCP> Date: 12 Feb 91 17:29:10 GMT References: <12281.27a9a905@ecs.umass.edu> <1991Feb7.192957.7986@sunee.waterloo.edu> <1991Feb8.041654.16071@rti.rti.org> Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Heights, IL Lines: 63 bcw@rti.rti.org (Bruce Wright) writes: > 1) If you distribute just the archive, then the end-user will > have to get a copy of PKZIP/PKUNZIP or ARC or one of the other > utilities that understand these formats. It's no big deal for > people that dial in to a lot of bbs's or who swap a lot of > public domain or shareware software (those utilities are > pretty universal in that user community), but it's important > to realize that the entire microcomputer community isn't like > that. Some users don't get things from bbs's at all. Some I have a number of pieces of shareware software that are 'self-extracting', what an elegant solution! I bought them thro' the US mail too. I also bought Corel Draw (now there's a company that deserve to succeed big time, as well as manuals and large numbers of discount vouchers...they include a video on how to use their software - brilliant!) - their software is also compressed, and it was also self extracting. They used a package which is available as shareware (I forget the name - it was based on the arc format) and I think it has some nominal registration fee ... it was specifically designed so that vendors (as opposed to the casual user) could compress their software if I recall correctly. > 2) If you distribute both the archive _and_ the unpacking > software, you will in all probability have to pay a licensing > fee to the company that makes the unpacking software. I don't > know what licensing fee would be for such an arrangement > (PKZIP asks for a contribution of $25, but presumably in a > mass distribution such as described a lower license fee could > be negotiated), but you can bet that the author is going to > ask for something significantly > $0. See above. (Its got to cost less than the cost of the extra disks required to hold the uncompressed software to be worthwhile). Is that just a one-off fee of $25 for registration, or a per copy fee (seems too high to be the latter). > I don't know exactly what Microsoft > sells Windows for (obviously the price they charge to the > distributors is a huge discount off the list price), or > exactly what their costs are (remember you have to pay for > development, support and marketing costs as well as the simple > production costs, so their costs must be substantial). I would > imagine that their profit margin on Windows itself is paper- > thin: it just doesn't sell for all that much. A game can > is going to add to the overhead and eat into that margin. Ain't that the truth. This is mass production software. Also, if you buy windows, chances are you be investing in other windows software - with a high chance that its produced Microsoft. > But unless it gets >provided with the operating system I doubt it will happen Now there's an idea. How about a rich set of versatile standard utilities that can be chained (forks & pipes?) together, supplied with the PC operating system........sounds like UNIX! It looks like DOS will never "grow up" ..... maybe OS/2 or UNIX will one day be cheap enough that we can forget about DOS, but then again, maybe not! (Perhaps the Free Software people will save the day with UNIX for a 386 PC?!) - Standard disclaimer