OS costs

[Sean Fagan]

*sigh*  Once again...

In article <36054 at unix.cis.pitt.edu> gray at med.pitt.edu (Gray Watson) writes:
>*I* am waiting for GNU to put out an entirely freeware release of their
>Unix.  I have heard that they have stopped development on their own because
>MACH is going to become freeware.

You heard wrong.  So far, the FSF (not GNU) has not started development of
an OS.  They *are* waiting for Mach (not MACH) to be freely available, but
that depends on a few things (such as the DoD and/or the DoC, and CMU having
it ready soon enough for them); if there are too many problems, they will go
with another system, or, *worst case* write their own kernel.

>When this hits the streets with i386 and i486 patches to it, look out!!!
>Free Unix with *SOURCE* here we come.

Right.  First of all, Mach is not UNIX(tm).  It currently looks a lot like
BSD, but that's because it also has Berkeley (and, therefore, AT&T) source
code in it.  When that code is removed (a la Mach 3.0), the non-free code is
gone, but so is the compatability.  One of the first things that the FSF
would have to do with Mach is write a set of unix-compatable library
routines.

And it's *still* not going to binary-compatable.  Which means a *lot* for
the '386 (and, of course, '486) world.  Nor will it run on a '286.  Nor will
it run DOS code.

More importantly:  nor will the FSF hand-hold customers, or put in a lot of
work, so that non-wizardly people can install it.

>p.s. No wonder the Unix companies are trying to grab as much $$ as possible.

Right.  First of all, see the reasons above.  Second of all, *you* try
selling UNIX(tm) cheaply.  uPort tried it, and they had to claim Chapter 11.
That's *bankrupt*.  They're back, now (and bigger and better than ever, as
the commercials for _Robocop II_ proclaimed 8-)), and trying again.  My best
wishes to them.

Thirdly, in reply to the attempted slur:  guess what:  almost every company
in existance tries to "grab as much $$ as possible."  This is known as
attempting to make a profit.

-- 
Sean Eric Fagan  | "let's face it, finding yourself dead is one 
seanf at sco.COM    |   of life's more difficult moments."
uunet!sco!seanf  |   -- Mark Leeper, reviewing _Ghost_
(408) 458-1422   | Any opinions expressed are my own, not my employers'.