Re: Free UNIX for non-commerical use.

From: Lord Isildur (isildur_at_andrew.cmu.edu)
Date: 07/28/03 

Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 11:14:02 -0400 (EDT)

Not to start a flamewar, but... don't ignore the BSD's. 'best' is a very
hard to define term.. personally i consider NetBSD or OpenBSD to be 'best'
and Linux to be very suboptimal.. other have other opinions.
The essence, though, is that in the Unix world, vendors have had less incentive
to make their own products free since almost all the hobbyist/noncommercial/
home use communities have been using and developing free systems. Not
only that, but the free systems are of very high quality and are very modern;
frequently an innovation will appear first in netbsd or linux before it
ever gets adopted by sun or HP (DEC was more eager to innovate and was also
the first of them to have a free hobbyist license for any of their systems :)
When you have a good system, which moreover you are familiar with and it is
totally unencumbered by licenses or odious vendor originated incompatibilities,
you are far less inspired to use a vendor-supplied system even if you have
access to it.

I work in a university also. I have to say that in my experience, the
PeeCee type vendors (apple and M$ primarily) tend to give away software, whereas
the workstation vendors, primarily DEC and Sun, but also IBM (i've seldom
even heard rumor of HP doing so) give away hardware. We have lots of now
very old DEC gear that had been given to our lab, for example, totally free;
dozens and dozens of alpha systems, disks, etc.. Intel also gives away a lot
of hardware. All in all, i'd prefer the hardware any day, and M$ can keep its
donations of software.. 'free' and worth every penny!
Lately, Apple has been giving away lots of hardware, too. They are all aware
of the phenomenon that what people use when at university heavily influences
what they will prefer when in industry.

I agree that SCO's recent legal stunts will erase any remaining goodwill they
might still have had.. not like that was going to change anything. As long
as I've been aware of SCO's existence, SCO has always been considered the
ghetto of the unix world. i had the displeasure of using a xenix box once or
twice; it was painful. SCO hasn't managed to make a decent unix ever, or at
least not in the past decade.

Isildur

On Sun, 27 Jul 2003, Doug Dingus wrote:

> "Dr. David Kirkby" <drkirkby@ntlworld.com> wrote in message news:<3F233C74.4F4C3BAB@ntlworld.com>...
> > As someone who works in a University, I am amazed UNIX vendors don't
> > give away free copies of their operating systems to students and home
> > users.
>
> They all have licensed bits that they must pay for. Giveaways would
> be at a loss to them.
>
> >If HP gave away HP-UX, whereas Sun, SGI, IBM etc. did not give
> > their OS releases, home users would be more likely to buy cheap used
> > HP kit. When those home users go in to industry, they are more likely
> > to buy **EXPENSIVE** new HP kit. So it's to HP's advantage to give
> > away HP-UX to students and home users.
>
> Agreed here. Though it is easy enough to get an OS if you network
> around a little.
>
> (snip)
>
> > One can't expect Microsoft to give Windoze away for free, as Microsoft
> > will never gain any extra revenue from hardware sales. But SGI, HP,
> > IBM, Sun etc. will gain extra sales of hardware, by allowing home
> > users to learn their operating systems, rather than that of their
> > competitors.
>
> Agree here, but you forget Linux.
>
> (snip)
> > But I don't think any home
> > user or student would care less whether or not SCO was given away now.
>
> Their legal stunts lately will likely create this attitude everywhere
> no matter the product quality.
>
> Your best free UNIX is Linux. Students that learn to use Open Source
> code will be able to do much of their computing for free on just about
> any hardware they can find. If said students also realize the
> implications of Open Standards, they will own what they create as
> well.
>
> I understand your position regarding educational licenses, but do not
> expect to see things change much in the future.
>

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Free UNIX for non-commerical use.
    ... The essence, though, is that in the Unix world, vendors have had less incentive ... PeeCee type vendors tend to give away software, ... even heard rumor of HP doing so) give away hardware. ... Students that learn to use Open Source ...
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  • Re: Free UNIX for non-commerical use.
    ... The essence, though, is that in the Unix world, vendors have had less incentive ... PeeCee type vendors tend to give away software, ... even heard rumor of HP doing so) give away hardware. ... Students that learn to use Open Source ...
    (comp.unix.tru64)
  • Re: Free UNIX for non-commerical use.
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  • Re: Free UNIX for non-commerical use.
    ... The essence, though, is that in the Unix world, vendors have had less incentive ... PeeCee type vendors tend to give away software, ... even heard rumor of HP doing so) give away hardware. ... Students that learn to use Open Source ...
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  • Re: Free UNIX for non-commerical use.
    ... The essence, though, is that in the Unix world, vendors have had less incentive ... PeeCee type vendors tend to give away software, ... even heard rumor of HP doing so) give away hardware. ... Students that learn to use Open Source ...
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