Free UNIX for non-commerical use.- shut up, pls

[GT Jeff Cherer]

Frankly, I've seen your name on other posts to this list. If i remember
right, most of the time it wasn't to offer any help or info, but to ask for
free this or that or to carp why there wasn't enough free available to
university students and faculty.
I get paid for what i do, and just assume that everyone else deserves to get
paid for what they do - monetary, in-kind, or psychic reward, their pick.
The beggar has the right to ask, but no right to insist. It would be a
courtesy, i think, to accept graciously that which is free, and just shut up
about what rightfully is not. My $.02.
And, btw, the big scholastic giveaway did not appear to pan out as per
Apple and Digital.
And, lastly, my profound apologies to the massive cross-post - it is part of
the original poster's reply-to.

"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. 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.
>
> The same can be said for any UNIX hardware vendor - I strongly suspect
> it's in their long term economic interest to encourage people to learn
> their operating systems. Once you know one commercial UNIX operating
> system, you are likely to want to stick to it.
>
> Why on earth Sun don't change the licence conditions of their
> so-called free licence for Solaris on SPARC, I don't know. Solaris can
> be freely downloaded, yet its illegal to use it on virtually all used
> Sun kit sold. Their previous licence, which allowed for its use on
> machines of up to 8 CPUs seemed more sensible.
>
> HP have a reasonably attractive package that allows non-commerical
> users to gain the latest copy of the Tru64 operating system and the HP
> C compiler for Tru64 for $100. Yet HP have no such policy with their
> other UNIX operating system (HP-UX).
>
> I'd like to know HP's logic of the differing policies of Tru64 and
> HP-UX. It seems very odd to sell Tru64 and compiler for $99, yet give
> no discounts on the HP-UX.
>
> 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.
>
> One can't expect SCO to give away SCO UNIX, as again they will gain no
> extra revenue from hardware sales, although they might have done with
> software sales had Linux never existed. But I don't think any home
> user or student would care less whether or not SCO was given away now.
>
>
>
> --
> Dr. David Kirkby,
> Senior Research Fellow,
> Department of Medical Physics,
> University College London,
> 11-20 Capper St, London, WC1E 6JA.
> Tel: 020 7679 6408 Fax: 020 7679 6269
> Internal telephone: ext 46408
> e-mail [email]davek@medphys.ucl.ac.uk[/email]

[Dr. David Kirkby]

GT Jeff Cherer wrote:

>
> Frankly, I've seen your name on other posts to this list. If i remember
> right, most of the time it wasn't to offer any help or info, but to ask for
> free this or that or to carp why there wasn't enough free available to
> university students and faculty.

I don't know what "this list" is, since I did cross-post to several
lists, which were relevant. One to a Sun list, one to an SGI list, one
to an AIX list ..etc.
Despite the fact there are numerous Sun lists, I posted to only one.

In the case of the non-Sun lists, then I would admit I've never given
much help, since I know very little about AIX, HP-UX, IRIX or Tru64.
There is no point on me offering advice on a subject I know very
little about.

Despite the fact I am not a professional system administrator, I have
however given considerable help to others on lists related to Suns.

I just did a search for my name on Google and found I'd made 441 posts
to comp.sys.sun.solaris, of which very few were asking for anything
free. The vast majority either seeking help on a Solaris issue, or
offering advice where I thought I was able to. Perhaps you would be as
kind as to count the number of posts asking for free items, and tell
us what fraction that is.

I tend to read comp.sys.sun.admin more than comp.sys.solaris, so there
you will find 2410 posts. Perhaps you would be as kind as to count the
number of posts asking for free items, and tell us what fraction that
is.

I've made 1400 posts to comp.sys.sun.hardware. Perhaps you would be as
kind as to count the number of posts asking for free items, and tell
us what fraction that is.

Do a search on my name and the word free in comp.sys.sun.wanted and
you will find 0 posts from me asking for free items, but a couple
offering unwanted items for no charge.


--
Dr. David Kirkby,
Senior Research Fellow,
Department of Medical Physics,
University College London,
11-20 Capper St, London, WC1E 6JA.
Tel: 020 7679 6408 Fax: 020 7679 6269
Internal telephone: ext 46408
e-mail [email]davek@medphys.ucl.ac.uk[/email]