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From: kjh@pollux.usc.edu (Kenneth J. Hendrickson)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: 386BSD
Message-ID: <33646@usc.edu>
Date: 15 Jun 91 23:01:41 GMT
References: <1991Jun12.145309.29231@ukpoit.co.uk> <1991Jun13.165309.20341@mathrt0.math.chalmers.se> <443@rubble.UUCP>
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In article <443@rubble.UUCP> chris@rubble.UUCP (Chris Nitsopoulos) writes:
>
>Introductory full source code license will be $US995.  This is 50%
>discount from the list price of $1995.  Educational discounts will
>also be avalible.  Purchasers of the first release may upgrade,
>without charge, to the second release.  
>
>Soon and almost free are definitly true...

Well, I don't consider $1000 anywhere close to free.  Perhaps you are
comparing it to the current cost of a source code license, which is more
than the cost of the average house in the American Midwest.

$1000 is about the same price as the current crop of System V Unixes.
However, BSD 4.4 will provide considerably more value by including
source.  Perhaps this will drive down the cost of the other Unixes.  I
won't hold my breath waiting for this to happen - I wondered if the
availability of Minix-386 (which is a *real* good OS IMHO) would drive
down the price of the other Unixes, and it never happened.

I think we have a good deal in Minix.  Free upgrades.  Full source.
Real working code as opposed to vapourware.  Net access to the author
and many other gurus.  Posix is coming (just like BSD 4.4).  And, IMHO,
Intel System V binary compatibility probably isn't that important for
Minix.  Anybody who can afford to buy software in binary form for System
V, can also afford to buy BSD 4.4.  Minix was intended (and should
continue) to be an educational tool.  The fact that it is useful in
itself is icing on the cake.

-- 
favourite oxymorons:   student athlete, military justice, mercy killing
Ken Hendrickson N8DGN/6       kjh@usc.edu      ...!uunet!usc!pollux!kjh