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From: pcg@thor.cs.aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: Dynix licensing
Message-ID: 
Date: 3 Oct 89 13:34:13 GMT
References: <6006@wolfen.cc.uow.oz> <294@baird.cs.strath.ac.uk>
Sender: pcg@aber-cs.UUCP
Organization: Coleg Prifysgol Cymru
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In-reply-to: jim@cs.strath.ac.uk's message of 30 Sep 89 19:39:33 GMT

In article <294@baird.cs.strath.ac.uk> jim@cs.strath.ac.uk (Jim Reid) writes:

   In article <6006@wolfen.cc.uow.oz> steve@wolfen.cc.uow.oz (Steve Cliffe) writes:
   >Can someone please tell me why Sequent persists with the user-limit 
   >concept.

   This is because UNIX is ultimately licensed by AT&T. Sequent's agreement
   with AT&T means that they have to pay AT&T royalties based on the number
   of users of each system they sell. The N-user AT&T licences mean Sequent
   supply N-user limited systems. 

Bogus idea. It has been long since AT&T has gone to very cheap
licensing; a 1-2 users royalty is $50 (fifty) and an unlimited
users license is $150 (one hundred fifty). Royalties for older
Unix versions (pre-system V) were both higher and more linked to
# of users, but still per-user royalties were very small.

It is simply that Sequent (like DEC for Ultrix, which used to
charge a few thousand dollars for each block of eight users
authorized) want to make money. You might want instead to
investigate on getting MACH sources for the Sequent, especially
if you are a University. Apparently, if you do it right, you can
even get it outside the USA. Contact the MACH people at CMU!
--
Piercarlo "Peter" Grandi           | ARPA: pcg%cs.aber.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth        | UUCP: ...!mcvax!ukc!aber-cs!pcg
Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk