Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1a 12/4/83; site rlgvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!floyd!cmcl2!seismo!rlgvax!guy From: guy@rlgvax.UUCP (Guy Harris) Newsgroups: net.micro Subject: Re: AT&T and the 3B2 (in defense of partitioning) Message-ID: <1986@rlgvax.UUCP> Date: Sun, 3-Jun-84 23:05:18 EDT Article-I.D.: rlgvax.1986 Posted: Sun Jun 3 23:05:18 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 5-Jun-84 20:17:43 EDT References: <428@hogpc.UUCP> <193@dicomed.UUCP> Organization: CCI Office Systems Group, Reston, VA Lines: 38 > The point is that most people WANT a loaded [object goes here]. Is that truly the case for "object" == "UNIX system"? A car with power steering, power brakes, stereo, air conditioner, etc., etc. doesn't require extra skills to use the options. However, a shop buying a small UNIX box (remember, the 3B2 isn't a big 40-100 user development machine, it's a small box) may not *have* any C programmers, or indeed any programmers at all; it may be a small business that wants to run its accounting and word processing on a small computer and possibly provide financial analysis programs for the owner. If these people were told, "Well, if you want to give up some disk space you could otherwise use for accounting files and documents and spreadsheets, you can get a program that allows you to write programs in the C language and run them on this machine," they'd probably say thanks, but no thanks. I agree it can be used as a marketing tool, but I don't know that that's how it actually is used. Given that the computers are being sold by AT&T, the argument that "well, the manufacturer pays AT&T the same price for the binary sublicense, regardless of whether the system offers a C compiler or not" doesn't apply. If AT&T unbundles UNIX in the same fashion, the same would hold true for other systems. If partitioning is used as an excuse to raise prices, I agree, it's annoying. It's annoying that the machine-readable form of the UNIX documentation, other than the User's, Administrator's, and Programmer's Manuals, is no longer provided as part of the basic System V package; on the other hand, if unbundling that documentation makes the purchasers that actually use it pay for the actual cost of providing it, I can't really fault AT&T for it. Let the market decide. If, indeed, most purchasers of small UNIX boxes including the 3B2 want the full system, and shun the 3B2 because the full system costs extra, AT&T will come around or end up with warehouses full of 3B2's. If most purchasers of small UNIX boxes couldn't care less whether such a box comes with all of System V, the 3B2 won't be hurt by the partitioning and most customers will get what they want. Guy Harris {seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!guy