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From: cwr@pnet01.cts.com (Will Rose)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Minix distribution
Message-ID: <1555@crash.cts.com>
Date: 18 Feb 90 08:16:06 GMT
Sender: root@crash.cts.com
Organization: People-Net [pnet01], El Cajon CA
Lines: 65

In a recent message, ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) writes:
 
>In article <1500@crash.cts.com> cwr@pnet01.cts.com (Will Rose) writes:
>>Certainly $120 for a program with no development cost (subsumed into the
>>original textbook cost), no support cost (apart from printing ast's email
>>address), and no maintenance cost (partly free from the net, and partly
>>subsumed into the cost of ast's next edition) is good business.  My guess
>>is that 1.6 and later will allow no copying
> .....  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.
 
My major premise was wrong - I thought the limit of two copies applied to
academic institutions; since (in another message) ast has said that it does
not, a student working on Minix needs only the texbook, at about $50.  Far
from being overpriced for the student market, Minix is therefore underpriced.
Most 'student versions' of DOS application programs are limited in scope, and
cost (with text) $35 or so.  Minix has infinitely more functionality, full
source, and a much better textbook to explain it all.  Interesting that this
is the same way that Unix gained its foothold - low cost to the academic
community and full source.  Coincidence or plan?
 
For the non-academic market, the cost is reasonable if not low; all Minix
users will need the textbook, so it will be a pity if separate disks are
not available, but by the time the listing has been added two volumes are 
really needed!  The code would fit nicely in the slip case distribution.
(BTW, for comparison, Wordstar 5.5 uses 18 360K disks and is now selling
for $100 as an upgrade from any older version.)
 
Ast goes on to say:
 
>>I bought the slipcase with Minix 1.2, (I already had the textbook) 
>Why did you buy the slipcase version when the yellow box with the disks
>was available for much less?
 
Because I knew no better, of course!  I was moving from a Z80 running
CP/M on floppies to an 8088 running Minix on a hard disk, with no MSDOS
experience, and I wanted all the help I could get.  I couldn't find a 
slipcase copy locally, hoped that it contained useful installation
information, and reckoned $30 extra was a good gamble.  With hindsight,
it wasn't, so I thought it was worth warning others not to make the same
mistake.  In fact, I had problems getting Minix to talk to my harddrive,
and only got it running with help from another net user (who I found to
be on the next floor down, in the same building!).
 
Just for the record, I think Minix is a magic beast - I've had enormous
fun with it, and learned a great deal; exactly what it was written for.
However, I'm also interested in studying how Minix is adopted by the
user community, and indeed how the Usenet medium affects that
adoption.  There are a lot of interesting points about the process of
Minix, without even considering the content!
 
Will
 
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