Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hoptoad!gnu
From: gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aux
Subject: Re: Future direction of A/UX?  (Corrections)
Message-ID: <7360@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 19 May 89 06:04:07 GMT
References: <4036@emory.mathcs.emory.edu> <7304@hoptoad.uucp> <7359@hoptoad.uucp>
Organization: Grasshopper Group in San Francisco
Lines: 28

Two small corrections to my previous message:

 *  I said Sun was shipping "10,000 to 20,000 Unix machines a month".
This is wrong.  Sun hasn't released this info for fiscal 1989 yet, but
if shipments follow the previous trend, they will end up shipping
10,000 machines for the first time this month or in June.  20,000
is way out of the ballpark.  Sorry 'bout that.

 * I guesstimated 1,500 to 3,000 copies of A/UX sold.  That is not
what we are really interested in, though.  The question is how many
copies of A/UX are running.  Within the last two weeks, two posters
have remarked that they removed A/UX from their systems and are now
running the MacOS exclusively.  I also note that when memory was
tight, the only way to get a 4MB Mac-II from Apple was to order it
with A/UX, whether you planned to run it or not.  In the other
direction, undoubtedly some copies of A/UX were cloned and are now
running on multiple machines.  Since both of these actions are private
decisions (and one is grounds for copyright infringement suits), good
numbers are going to be hard to find.  Still, getting an official
number of units sold by Apple would give us a ballpark idea of where
we stand.  Another good metric would be the number of A/UX 1.1 updates
purchased, since it shows how many sites are actively tracking the
latest A/UX release.  Is there *someone* at Apple who is authorised
to give these figures?
-- 
John Gilmore    {sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid,amdahl}!hoptoad!gnu    gnu@toad.com
  A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
  the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.