Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!hp4nl!botter!star.cs.vu.nl!ast
From: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Prentice-Hall too fouled up for words
Message-ID: <2403@ast.cs.vu.nl>
Date: 26 Apr 89 12:28:20 GMT
References: <13312@louie.udel.EDU> <2679@cps3xx.UUCP>
Reply-To: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Organization: VU Informatica, Amsterdam
Lines: 39

In article <2679@cps3xx.UUCP> usenet@cps3xx.UUCP (Usenet file owner) writes:
>I bought my copy of MINIX at Computer Literacy Bookstore in person off
>the shelf in San Jose. They only had software with manual or manual
>only.  No software only. Well, now you're saying "Great, but I'm
>not in SillyCon Valley". Good News they do mail order. According
>to their bookmark:
>
>MAIL AND PHONE
>ORDERS WELCOME
>
>Next day shipment guaranteed on
>all in-stock books.
>Call (408)435-1118

When MINIX first came out, the people at Computer Literacy tried to get
copies of the software to sell.  P-H didn't want to do this originally, since
the $79.95 price didn't include any margin for the store, but Computer
Literacy called P-H three times a day for a week, and P-H eventually got the
message.  The result was the $110 (now $116) version that includes the
software and manual packaged together.  This is intended to be sold by stores.
The $79.95 yellow box with software only is supposed to be mail order 
from P-H only.

I happened to be in California in Jan 1987, and Computer Literacy asked me
if I could give a little talk on MINIX.  I said ok.  Little did I know they
were going to rent a nontrivial portion of the Santa Clara Convention Center
and do enough publicity to attract a standing room only crowd of 500+
people.  This was not entirely out of the goodness of their heart since
they have a bookstore in the building, which had hundreds of copies of the
MINIX book at 7 p.m. and 0 copies at 11 p.m.

Still, my impression is that those guys are clearly on the ball.  They
have several stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, with an enormous
selection of stuff (ANSI standards, computer science PhD theses, as well
as a vast number of books and I guess some software).    I was impressed
with the whole operation, and they may well be a better source than P-H
for those items that they carry.

Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)