Return to BSD News archive
Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!news.cs.indiana.edu!purdue!yuma!barnesdo From: barnesdo@CS.ColoState.EDU (douglas barnes) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: Re: USL's Pieper profiled in UNIXWorld (selections) Message-ID: <Aug09.201214.62367@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU> Date: 9 Aug 92 20:12:14 GMT References: <EeUTz9a00WBMQ60ukF@andrew.cmu.edu> <1482@sousa.ltn.dec.com> Sender: news@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU (News Account) Organization: Colorado State University, Computer Science Department Lines: 74 In article <1482@sousa.ltn.dec.com> you write: >fl0p+@andrew.cmu.edu (Frank T Lofaro) writes: >: That is already happening. Look at Linux (a Finnish product). In 5 >: months (or less!) it will really destroy Destiny's destiny. Linux is >: free, pretty stable and complete even though currently still in beta. >: Some commerical UN*X's (e.g. Ultrix, DEC's BSD UN*X) have some rather >: nasty bugs that Linux doesn't, so don't automatically assume that free >: software doesn't measure up to commerical standards. The only commerical >: standards it won't measure up to are the commerical standards of >: bullshit [...] > >Sorry, I have to disagree. > >Although Linux is a magnificent achievement, it will *not* eat Destiny's >lunch. The reason is, quite simply, that "software" is *much* more than >bits and bytes on floppy disks. For hackers like you and me, that might >be the part we care about most. On the other hand, having been in the >industry for a few years, I can tell you that for real world customers with >real bucks, the bits and bytes are *almost* incidental to the total >product! There's documentation, and service, and support, and training, >and all kinds of *other* things you can't really get via anon ftp. As someone unfortunate enough to have to use actual vanilla AT&T Unix for the 386, as well as their abominable hardware, I can testify that they not only dish out some of the worst products in the universe from a technical basis, but also from the perspective of "documentation, and service, and support, and training..." AT&T sells products because similarly large, unwieldy bureaucracies *believe* they will get better doc/ser/sup/train from them. However, if they listen at all to the people who actually have to use the product, they discover that all these things are sorely lacking, or expensive to the point of being completely unafforable. Our client has purchased approximately 3,000 copies of their product, and can't get the time of day from those turkeys unless they shell out more megabucks. Let's ask Bill and Linus what kind of support they might provide for a cool $3 mil... I bet it would be a damned sight better than what we're getting now, and the product would be better to begin with. >Although Destiny might be mediocre as an operating system, USL is >much more equipped to deliver all the *other* goods than Linus is. Actually, USL's ability to provide support is wretched, which is whey they license their decaying technology to more service-oriented organizations who put varying levels of effort into plugging the holes and recaulking the seams. >When I first got out of school, I wondered why software companies could >release such buggy trash and still make money. The answer was that they >made up for it in other areas... the other two-thirds or eight-ninths >of the product, depending on product type. In the case of AT&T/USL, I'm sure that they spend far more than 2/3 or 8/9 on irrelevant overhead. That's just the point. They, like the saurian companies studied in MMM are bogged down in tar. The companies that will succeed in the future are the ones who can reduce the b.s. while delivering products and services of high quality at low cost. This may be by striking a middle road between the bloated monoliths and the user-supported software, but it could also emerge as a pay-for-service outgrowth of user-supported software. douglas barnes [speaking solely for himself] -- ----------- ----------- douglas barnes a waffle in every toaster, a barnesdo@CS.ColoState.EDU rutabaga in every microwave -- ----------- ----------- douglas barnes a waffle in every toaster, a barnesdo@CS.ColoState.EDU rutabaga in every microwave