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Path: utzoo!utcs!lsuc!jimomura
From: jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: Cost of OS-9 is about the same as cost of Unix.
Message-ID: <814@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 28-Sep-85 21:09:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: lsuc.814
Posted: Sat Sep 28 21:09:56 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 01:41:28 EDT
References: <511@petrus.UUCP> <974@druxo.UUCP> <575@sftig.UUCP> <798@lsuc.UUCP> <153@l5.uucp>
Reply-To: jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura)
Organization: Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto
Lines: 34
Summary: How cheap can endusers get it?

In article <153@l5.uucp> gnu@l5.uucp (John Gilmore) writes:
>In article <798@lsuc.UUCP>, jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura) writes:
>>      The cost of licensing OS-9 isn't unreasonably high.  If you check
>> around, you'll find that it's generally licenced for about $100.00 U.S.
>> The Shack is able to sell it for as little as $70.00 Canadian.
>
>Somehow I got the impression that a single-user Unix license (the real
>thing from AT&T) could be gotten in large volumes at less than $100.
>This includes a license to run *ALL* the Unix utilities, all the
>languages, etc.  (The people who divide it all up into dozens of separately
>priced $300 floppies are just ripping you off.)
>
>I suspect OS-9 fits better into a system with a 300K floppy and no hard
>disk, making it a better deal for the $100 for that kind of system, but
>that wasn't the question.


     I heard that $100.00 price too.  As for the repackagers, well,
I don't know that they really rip people off.  If they do a reall
port, ie with all the hardware interfacing completed, and provide
support (which I hear ATT doesn't), then the $300.00 isn't all that
bad.  Keep in mind that the $100.00 general price of OS-9 is
what I see for *ready to run* OS-9 software.  You don't have to
spend hours trying to get it up.  How much is your time worth?
Most pros charge around $50.00 from what I've heard.  Believe me,
you will *not* get generic Unix up in 6 hrs!

     Still, the *real* point should be that *many* alternatives
other than ground up software would have been reasonable enough
to consider.

-- 
James Omura, Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto
ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura