Re: Longtime VMS system manager/programmer available

On Apr 12, 7:50 pm, Michael Kraemer <M.Krae...@xxxxxx> wrote:
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 :-)

Not socialism, loss leader. And will it work long term? Yes I see the
smiley, but not sure to which parts of your sentence it applies.

AEF
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Longtime VMS system manager/programmer available
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    (comp.os.vms)
  • Re: Longtime VMS system manager/programmer available
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  • Re: How to work out executable -> object dependencies without MMS
    ... does HP really make enough from selling MMS licenses to make up for the people who don't use VMS because tools like this are free on other systems? ... Sun, OTOH, will GIVE you the development tools free for the asking. ... Sun seems to believe that applications that will run on Sun hardware and the Solaris "Operating Environment" sell both hardware and support services. ...
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