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From: earle@jplopto.uucp (Gregory Earle (40876))
Newsgroups: comp.windows.news
Subject: Re: NeWS product numbers and package description
Message-ID: <3747@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Date: Tue, 12-May-87 06:21:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: elroy.3747
Posted: Tue May 12 06:21:52 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 14-May-87 06:36:46 EDT
References: <8705111004.AA20902@brillig.umd.edu> <533@vanhalen.paul.RUTGERS.EDU>
Sender: news@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov
Reply-To: earle@jplopto.JPL.NASA.GOV (Greg Earle)
Organization: Jet Expulsion Police State Lab, Pasadena, CA
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In article <533@vanhalen.paul.RUTGERS.EDU> shs@paul.RUTGERS.EDU (Steven H. Schwartz) writes:
>    From: don@BRILLIG.UMD.EDU (Don Hopkins)
>
>      * NEWSBIN-01 (1/4" tape + documentation + 1 Right to Use License  $100)
>      * NEWSBIN-02 (1/2" tape + documentation + 1 Right to Use License  $100)
>      * NEWSBIN-09 (documentation only  $75)
>
>Must be good software at $25 {:-)

The $25 is basically in the cost of producing the media copy.  Essentially,
it's free (more or less).

Incidentally, at the last Sun Open House at their L.A. Sales office,
Warren Teitelman came down to talk about NeWS vs. X (well, mostly NeWS (-:).
He mentioned that NeWS was $100, and said `just like MIT charges $100 for X'.
I said afterwards that if he was going to compare things with MIT, then he
should therefore make the distribution available via anonymous FTP on sun.COM,
just like you can get X from zap.MIT.EDU.  He raised a few objections, like
the support issue (since they are a Company with a Product, as opposed to a
Research Project, where one can get away with No Support).  I replied that
the people who knew enough to get it via anonymous FTP were probably the
same ones that would get X the same way, and didn't give two sh*ts about the
support problem.  Also, I told him that for many monolithic organizations
(like JPL - `you want it WHEN?'), the potential barrier to overcome to
actually get them to cough up $100 would be such a pain in the arse and take
so long (`Why do you want this?  What is the justification?  Fill out a
Non-Competitive justification form!!  We vant all ze paperwerk when it
arrives!!' (-: ) could be enough to discourage one from getting it, whereas
if it just takes a simple FTP then a lot more people might be willing to get
it.  Gradually he started coming around to my way of thinking, and ended
with the request that I send him some email stating my position after he
went back to Mountain View.  Alas, I never had the chance; perhaps if the
collected NeWS-Makers readers sent Don a message supporting this, he could
send the collected responses to Warren and, well, just maybe ...

One last thing - anyone interested in NeWS, X, and Window systems in general
should check out `Methodology Of Window Management' (Hopgood, Duce,
Fielding, Robinson, Williams; editors) on Springer-Verlag.  It contains a
paper by Warren, as well as Gosling's original SunDew paper; 3 other papers
by Gosling (2 w/ David Rosenthal) - `Partitioning of Function in Window
Systems', `System Aspects of Low-Cost Bitmapped Displays', and `A Window
Manager for Bitmapped Displays and Unix'.  There's also about 10 other
papers on hand as well, and half the book is devoted to chronicling the
activities of the various Working Groups involved with the conference upon
which the book is based, the Workshop on Window Management, held at the
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in 1985.  Good Stuff.

(I'd also plug Comer's new XINU Volume II on Internetworking, but this
isn't the right place.  I just happened to get them both at the same time)

	Greg Earle		earle@{jplpub1,jplopto}.JPL.NASA.GOV
	(Now ex-)JPL		jpl{pub1,opto}!earle@jpl-elroy.ARPA
				jpl(pub1,opto}!earle@elroy.JPL.NASA.GOV
				seismo!cit-vax!elroy!jpl{opto,pub1}!earle