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Date:      Tue, 22 Aug 1995 12:39:21 -0400 (EDT)
From:      "Don's FList drop" <freelist@elf.kendall.mdcc.edu>
To:        "Jonathan M. Bresler" <jmb@kryten.Atinc.COM>
Cc:        hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: your mail
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.91.950822123311.25629A-100000@elf.kendall.mdcc.edu>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.89.9508221156.Q1082-0100000@kryten.atinc.com>

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Yep, saw this Inf.Week article and was thinking of commenting, glad you 
beat me to it.

I think a letter needs to go to them, perferably from someone from the 
"steering team" commenting about the existance of FreeBSD, the concept of 
paying for software vs. support, the existance of consultants, what 
support you _actually_ get from Sun/Next/etc if you buy their unix, etc, etc.

On Tue, 22 Aug 1995, Jonathan M. Bresler wrote:

> information week, a glossy management droid magazine, has an article 
> entitled "Is Freeware Worth It?" in the august 14th issue.

[snip snip]

> 	"You get what you pay for," warns Scott Winkler, VP of operating
> systems with Gartner Group Inc., and information technology advisory firm
> in Stamford, Conn.

This, to me, just illustrates that people who OUGHT to know better are 
unable to differentiate between what they pay for in a product as far as 
product vs. product-bundled-support. It's the reason why WordPerfect 
shrinkwrapped at CompUSA costs more than a bundle of 10 which costs more 
than the educational no-support pack you can buy - you're not buying just 
a disk and a manual, you're also buying some support as well, and there's 
no reason why you can't factor that cost into the cost of "freeware" as well.

> 	so maybe FreeBSD needs a commercial variant--Elitix--for the 
> elite business people who just have to have the pricy version.   (and 
> they let these people run companies and make decisions involving other 
> people and large sums of money--bloody hell)

No, we need a few value-added resellers who provide support and 
coordination that the organizations can't do for themselves, similar to 
the Caldera option. Or at least a more visible inclusion of "People You 
Can Pay For Help With FreeBSD" with the distributions.



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