Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!think!barmar
From: barmar@think.COM (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Ethics of crippler circuitry
Message-ID: <36320@think.UUCP>
Date: 10 Feb 89 17:09:22 GMT
References: <7143@pyr.gatech.EDU> <11630010@hpsmtc1.HP.COM> <4602@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM> <89156@sun.uucp>
Sender: news@think.UUCP
Reply-To: barmar@kulla.think.com.UUCP (Barry Margolin)
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 16

What about a related issue: OS licenses that restrict the number of
users.  You purchase a computer and an OS, but pay different amounts
depending on the number of users you want to allow to use it
simultaneously, although there are no software changes other than
changing a parameter to the routine that enforces the restriction.

My feeling is that you purchase a certain amount of performance, and
how you want to allocate it should be up to you.  If you put lots of
users on a small machine, they'll get poor performance, so why should
you also get charged extra?

Barry Margolin
Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com
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