Re: Longtime VMS system manager/programmer available

Richard B. Gilbert schrieb:

Sun Microsystems, for example, has made both the Solaris O/S and the development tools available for free! You can download Solaris 10 and the development tools. You do have to accept the license agreement. You can get the software on DVD for a nominal charge or free, depending on the policy of the week.

Been there, done that already :-)
Sun Studio was free of charge ( but I would have agreed
to pay some hobbyist compatible fee), and a Solaris 10
media set I picked up at eBay for a reasonable price
(as I did for 7, 8 and 9).


That means that just about anybody can develop applications for Solaris.
They don't require you to, they just hope that some of their customers will do so. It also means that people who want to learn programming and/or system administration can get started very cheaply.

That's certainly a smart move on Sun's part.
Increasing visibility at the low end, even if it implies
losing some money in the short term,
seems a better survival strategy to me
than just hoping the high end would save the day.
Unfortunately most companies, including HP and even IBM,
seem to follow the latter strategy.

Sun hardware is available, used, on e-Bay for very reasonable prices. You can pick up an Ultra 10 with "Creator-3D" graphics for less than $100 US.

Over here it's even cheaper :-)
I was lucky enough to pickup a whole bunch of Ultra 30 plus extras,
and an HP C8000 (the last PA RISC station) for a ridiculously low price
from a local PC reseller. And though HP-UX is not downloadable,
it is legal to install and run it once you got hold of some media.


Sun sells systems, service, and support. It seems to be working for them!

Sure, but, coming back to the initial issue,
somebody has to pay the tool developer's salaries,
or you will get sub-optimal tools or no tools at all.
Obviously Sun distributes the costs over all paying customers.
That's fine with me, and if Sun succeeds in the long term,
this may be sort of a proof that socialism *can' work :-)

.

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