Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!ucbvax!SUN.COM!melohn
From: melohn@SUN.COM (Bill Melohn)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Networks & vendor upgrades/fixes
Message-ID: <8711230409.AA00663@sluggo.sun.com>
Date: Sun, 22-Nov-87 23:09:11 EST
Article-I.D.: sluggo.8711230409.AA00663
Posted: Sun Nov 22 23:09:11 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Nov-87 21:01:14 EST
References: <8711222104.AA11940@etn-wlv.EATON.COM> <8711222136.AA25270@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: melohn@Sun.COM (Bill Melohn)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 15

I feel it is bogus for a vendor to NOT offer source to those customers
who have the local expertise to make use of it, and are willing to pay
for the extra cost of its distribution. However, many if not most end
users either do not want to do their own software maintenance or don't
have a local support staff, and would rather pay the vendor for a turn
key solution and phone line customer support. Within each organization,
this is usually an economic rather than technical issue.

Unix certainly represents the only real attempt to free the end user
from vendor dependence on a particular operating system or machine
architecture.  It is far from perfect, but it does run on different
machines from PCs to Crays, and goes farther than any other vendor
implementation in providing an application and system interface that
is offered by a wide range of computer vendors on widely different
hardware.