Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!usc!bloom-beacon!eru!luth!sunic!mcsun!ukc!dcl-cs!aber-cs!thor!pcg 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 Lines: 27 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