Re^2: SVR4 shipping, sort of, allegedly; Microport is baaaaack

[Mark McWiggins]

larry at nstar.uucp (Larry Snyder) writes:

>mark at intek01.uucp (Mark McWiggins) writes:

>>Microport (+1 800 FOR UNIX) is back out of Chapter 11 (or whatever chapter
>>they were in) and shipping a "developer's release" of SVR4 with the
>>kitchen sink (TCP/IP, NFS, RFS, X, Streams, everything I can think of
>>but DWB).  I asked when and the guy said "now."  Don't know what
>>"devleoper's release" means ("buggy?" "don't even think of calling for
>>support?" (1/2 :) ).  Now for the bad news: it comes on tape only, and 
>>costs $2500.

>$2500 for Microport - is that list price?  Is there a discount
>for VAR's and or developers?

No discounts and no reselling for this release -- I called back and they said
they're only SELLING to developers right now.  He said it's for "those who 
want to get the jump on the competition" and that "we're shipping a lot."

He said the "commercial release" plans aren't final yet, but probably would
list for $1600 or so.  I asked what's included in the "developer's release"
and not in the "commercial release" and he said that decision hadn't been
made yet.

I also spoke again with a lady at UHC.  She seemed a little more flexible
in talking about VAR programs and whatnot, but it's all still up in the
air.  They're also not shipping until August 15.

I got an insight from the UHC lady into the basis for these stratospheric
prices: she said that AT&T is offering their SVR4 binary for $5000!  I took
this as a signal that AT&T doesn't want to be in the binary business anymore,
but apparently UHC and the reborn Microport took it as a green light to
price themselves right out of the market.

I received a piece of E-mail from a guy claiming out that the sublicensing
fees for V.4 are actually LOWER than those for V.3.2.  I think I'd read
this somewhere else, also; can someone post the True Facts?

Also, it would really help if anyone from Everex, Dell, Interactive, and/or
Intel would post some inkling of their plans.

-- 
Mark McWiggins			Integration Technologies, Inc. (Intek)
+1 206 455 9935			DISCLAIMER:  I could be wrong ...
1400 112th Ave SE #202		Bellevue WA  98004
uunet!intek01!mark		Ask me about C++!