Unbundling - we all do it, so let's stop complaining

[Dimitri Rotow]

WARNING!  What follows contains sales and marketing talk!


In article <382 at uport.UUCP>, plocher at uport.UUCP (John Plocher) writes:
> > > [re: Bell Tech]

[ John writes a lot of stuff comparing what you *do* get with Microport to
what you *don't* get with Bell Tech.  For starters this is dumb because we
simply publish the operating system that Intel and AT&T create.  It's not 
a "Bell Tech" anything, it's an Intel/AT&T product.  That there happen to
be "Bell Tech" device drivers in it (along with Interactive Systems device
drivers, Intel device drivers and AT&T device drivers) is because *Intel* 
and *AT&T* put them there when they certified *their* product.  We don't
add *anything* to the already hot Intel/AT&T product.  If you don't think
Intel and AT&T are real serious about shipping a "shrink-wrapped" O/S
product, you should re-read Intel's recent ads in UNIX/WORLD and elsewhere.

Anyway, John says some stuff about the Intel/AT&T product that just isn't
so ... here are only the points that need correcting... Keep in mind that
when he says "Bell Tech" he's really talking about the Intel/AT&T release.]

>  o  Bell Tech unbundles the license, the media, and the manuals; does not
>     provide DWB.

Wrong.  We sell it for $45.

> fees to AT&T easier.  Bell Tech sells Unix (with their drivers) at almost
> their cost because they hope to sell you their hardware and make up for the
> low price that way.

Wrong.  We sell UNIX cheap for the same reason we helped Microport get started.
We think a solid, non-proprietarized UNIX sponsored by Intel and AT&T which is
sold for the same price as DOS helps everyone in the UNIX market (except maybe
those companies that have an ax to grind keeping it proprietarized and over-
priced).  We make a lot more money from software value added than hardware.

> [ John does a comparison that shows you spend $783 more for Microport than you
would with Bell Tech, and then goes into a list of stuff that Microport has 
and Bell Tech allegedly doesn't have ...]
...
> 
> What does the extra $783 get you from Microport?
> 
>   o  Easy installation via an automatic, interactive install procedure

Wrong.  We've had this in every release Intel's given us.

>   o  DWB 2.0 (nroff, troff, otroff, -mm, -man ...)

****** Buy it for $45 if you're too cheap to get Elan's neat-o product.

>   o  Serial ports that work without having to buy Bell Tech's HUB or ICC card

****** To my knowledge, lots of third party serial port cards support Intel and
AT&T.  If you don't like the HUB, ICC or ACE you don't have to buy them, amigo.
If you've spent $783 to get support for some multiport card that costs within
$100 or $200 of our products (and almost always costs a lot more), what have
you saved?  Don't you know we will beat bona fide price on a competitive card? 
Do you really want to pay Microport $500 per installation to support a multi
port card when the originating vendor is too inexpert to do so?

>   o  Support for non-standard (ST-506 interface) MFM, ESDI, and RLL drives

******* This is pure idiocy.  You seem to forget, my friend, that it was Bell
Technologies that first put RLL and ESDI support into Microport.  The Intel/AT&T
release has the best non-ST-506, non-MFM, disk support of any release around.

>   o  Tape backup that works with standard Everex or Wangtek 60 & 125 Mb tape
>      drives (not just Bell Tech's own - ask them, their driver is designed
>      to only work with their drives)
****** Again, there are third parties supporting this (no less than AT&T!),
we support our own products to keep the support bandwidth down.  And what's
wrong with that? How much time have you spent today supporting SCO or 386/ix?.

>   o  A 30 day Installation Support and Money Back warranty - if it doesn't
>      work for any reason, send it back for a refund
****** Same here.  Our usual money back is 7 days, but we'll extend it to  30
days if anyone asks.  We charge half price, by the way, for any UNIX license
used for machine test or sales demo purposes ... How about you?

You know, John, there are lots of good choices for 80386 operating systems 
these days.  SCO has a fantastic offering, Interactive 386/ix is hot stuff, 
and Intel/AT&T have got a terrific UNIX engine cranking for the benefit of
us all.  Before you flame at Intel/AT&T too much you should acknowledge your
debt to them for putting you in business and helping you stay there.

Regards, 

Dimitri Rotow