Re: More on iSeries web apps and security

[Peter Dow <maillist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't know if it's true, but the story was that AT&T started selling 
Unix for something like $180,000 for the 1st copy, $90,000 for the next 
2 copies, and so on until it was free.  If true, I guess that's one way 
to get $ for your software as fast as possible; the problem is getting 
those 1st few customers...

Joe Pluta wrote:
> Walden H. Leverich wrote:
>   
> > If I buy a small system i with a license for 5 users we all know the
> > hardware they ship me can handle 50. So is IBM grafting on "both
> > crippling limits and Draconian licensing"?? Bottom line, yes! It's
> > long-standing tradition that the big guys pay extra so the little guys
> > can pay less. Only way it works.
> >   
> >     
> I was being (mostly) tongue in cheek, but to be honest, I think you're 
> comparing apples and anchors here.  IBM basically charges most everybody 
> the same thing.  And in fact, with the new per-user licensing, they do 
> charge everyone the same.  That's a little different than taking what is 
> fundamentally the same OS and saying "you're using it as a server, so it 
> costs more".
>
> Now, when IBM had the CPU governor (CFINT) on, THAT was truly Draconian, 
> and much more similar to the Microsoft nonsense.  But, really, in the 
> end it's hard to define the value of software, and every manufacturer is 
> trying to figure out the way to best profit off what they have.  I just 
> find the attempts at justifying it as anything other than pure profit to 
> be amusing.  Funding the masses by soaking the high-end consumer is not 
> an attempt by Microsoft to be noble or altruistic, it's simply the only 
> model that allows them to flood the low end with cheap software and bind 
> the newcomer to their brand.
>
> In other venues, it's known as "the first one is free".  :)
>
> Joe
>