Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwm.edu!rpi!image.soe.clarkson.edu!jk0
From: jk0@image.soe.clarkson.edu (Jason Coughlin)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: The future of Minix
Message-ID: <1990Feb17.182120.17607@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
Date: 17 Feb 90 18:21:20 GMT
References: <5443@star.cs.vu.nl>
Sender: jk0@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Jason Coughlin)
Organization: Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY
Lines: 24

From article <5443@star.cs.vu.nl>, by ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum):
> A couple of messages back someone noted that he had just bought a chemistry
> book for $70.  I suspect that if that publisher had to throw in 17 diskettes
> as well, they wouldn't come out that much lower than $120.  Furthermore, I bet
> they wouldn't permit their author to distribute free upgrades to the disks
> indefinitely on the net.  Version 2.0 and beyond will have the same license
> as the current one: you may may 2 copies, so three people can share the $120.
> I think compared to what Microsoft, Lotus, and most other companies charge,
> this is not outrageous.

Since I started this thread, I would like to finish it before we get
into a war.  My whole point was that I thought it was unfair to make a
student pay ($120 + $40) for one undergraduate level OS course.  I didn't
say that $120 was unreasonable for MINIX *period* -- I said it was
unreasonable to charge for an *undergrad* OS course.  Andy said that
educational institutions are allowed to make copies for their students
taking the class.  THEREFORE, the war is mute.


-- 
Jason Coughlin ( jk0@sun.soe.clarkson.edu , jk0@clutx )
"Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the
part that isn't thinking isn't thinking of." - They Might Be Giants