Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!DECWRL.DEC.COM!price
From: price@DECWRL.DEC.COM
Newsgroups: comp.windows.news
Subject: Re: X-Windows price for A/UX
Message-ID: <8804251728.AA02464@eros.dec.com>
Date: 25 Apr 88 18:09:16 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 31


> I think it's funny how the "public domain" X window system usually ends
> up costing big bucks from the vendors who support it, while the
> "proprietary" NeWS system costs $100 for Suns, $225 for Macs, etc.  HP
> charges $2100 for X windows!  

Seems to me that you missed the operative phrase here: *support*. The proprietary
NeWS system indeed costs $100 for Suns. X costs *nothing* for Suns or DEC
machines, or a host of others.  What *does* cost is *supported* versions of the
system, and the added software developed by the vendor which actually makes 
the whole thing useful.  With basic X, and basic NeWS, you get a nice chassis, 
but you don't get the whole Porsche. Thats what vendors provide, and it
costs money. 

sorry xpert, but I can't hold it back... ack!  gag! groan!  <FLAME ON!>

It really bugs me to see some of the most talented people in the industry
labor for *multiple* years to provide *free* X reference software for the
workstation community, only to have members of that community yell foul! when
those same people start offering *high performance*, *supported* versions of
the system as a commercial product.

If you don't want to pay for it, get the free stuff off the net, or
from your friends.
Start doing self-support, and developing all your own layered 
applications. Maybe then you will understand why software development 
and support costs money.

<Flame off!>  whew! pant! wheeze! ...sorry I couldn't hold it in...


-chuck