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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.bhp.com.au!mel.dit.csiro.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!paladin.american.edu!gatech!swrinde!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!tporczyk From: tporczyk@netcom.com (Tony Porczyk) Subject: Re: Historic Opportunity facing Free Unix (was Re: The Lai/Baker paper, benchmarks, and the world of free UNIX) Message-ID: <tporczykDpvx09.42p@netcom.com> Organization: ITRC References: <4ki055$60l@Radon.Stanford.EDU> <jdd.829261293@cdf.toronto.edu> <tporczykDpqKHL.7vG@netcom.com> <DpsKyx.1Jo@catzen.gun.de> <31712faa.4336255@news.wwa.com> Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 03:43:21 GMT Lines: 57 Sender: tporczyk@netcom14.netcom.com hal@thoughtport.com (Hal Snyder) writes: >scot@catzen.gun.de (Scot W. Stevenson) wrote: >>[about NT] (Laugh) Yeah, which is just about $295 over my budget... >That's just the price for bare NT Workstation. Did you want a domain >controller (compare rdist or NIS server) - then you need NT Server, >which is well over $300. Come on, we are talking about workstations that are supposed to run Word Processing and Spreadsheet, or have I missed something? >E-Mail? No problem, buy Exchange Server (again, well >over $300) plus a Client Access License for each connected host... Companies pay more for NetWare stuff. I repeat, those costs are *peanuts*. Get serious. I could afford to set it up at home, let alone in the business environment. People get hung up on a few dollars when real costs are in user training and maintenance. >Like to read legalese? Spend hours perusing the nifty 8-page EULA >stuck to your CD cases, then enjoy license nag when you install. Oh, yeah, and every secretary does nothing but study license agreements. Get a grip on reality. >Rumor is, NT Server 3.51 even works on multi-homed systems if you get >Service Pack 4. That must be an overwhelming concern for the receptionist or accounting clerk. Come on, I already said, I am all for UNIX on the desktop, but the only thing that will do it is *applications*, not a savings of a few dollars per desktop. Oh, what am I talking about... You want to talk about costs? Fine, compare putting Word 6.0 and Excel on each machine (about $200 per node) and then calculate putting similar software on UNIX workstations. Don't get a heart attack in the process. UNIX has superb applications in certain areas (networking, engineering), and that's where it rules. On the common desktop it has next to nothing, and so it doesn't exist. Where I see a possibility is the growth of Intranets. If more and more work is done on a workgroup basis, UNIX could enter that area early with *complete* solutions and gain some ground because of its inherent suitability as a platform for networking applications. But by the time UNIX bigots stop fighting between themselves, it will be too late and that market will also belong to MickeySoft. t. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tony Porczyk * tporczyk@netcom.com * San Jose, California GIT/ED d++$(!d) s++:++ a? C++++ USLB++++$ P+ E--- W(--) N++ !k w-- M- V? b- PS+++@ PE++ O X-- Y++@ PGP-- t+@ 5++ R* D---- e* V-- h* y** r+++(*)+++(*)>? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------