Re: More on iSeries web apps and security

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