Price gouging: as long as we're at it...

[David Fickes]

After listening to the discussion regarding Mathematica pricing... I dug
up the figures for PROGRESS software on the Sun...  Okay I can understand
WHY PROGRESS might be more expensive on a Sun than an IBM-PC (more
performance) but if this is the case why is the price for a "server"
version of the SPARCstation1 cost 30% less than a Sun 3/160!!!  This is
based on the PROGRESS Application Development System.  I asked our
"regional account rep" and he mumbled about connectivity and "information
supplied by Sun" ...

This is almost as arcane as the bids I worked with several other database
vendors for clients (shall I mention RTI and Unify?)  In any case, the
responeses seem to revolve around:

1. The whole database industry does it...
2. User licensing is "too" hard to do... so we just estimate
	your useage based on the number we think most people 
	use and don't any method of distiquishing the person
	who uses it once/week vs. the company using it with
	a data retrieval staff of nine....

Anyone care to leap to the defense?

david

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David K. Fickes     				Expert Publishing Group
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