Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 14:47:18 -0600 From: Nate Williams <nate@rocky.sri.MT.net> To: "Jonathan M. Bresler" <jmb@kryten.atinc.com> Cc: dennis <dennis@et.htp.com>, paul@FreeBSD.ORG, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: SCO and high prices Message-ID: <199508222047.OAA29029@rocky.sri.MT.net> In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.89.9508221533.T1082-0100000@kryten.atinc.com> References: <199508221839.OAA24912@mail.htp.com> <Pine.3.89.9508221533.T1082-0100000@kryten.atinc.com>
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> > wrong. SCOs customers didn't wince when they raised their prices because > > most of their BIG customer are under contract and the rest of them are so > > rich it doesn't matter. SCO doesn't participate in the low end market, so > > you could be right. i wouldn't know. I disagree with Dennis. Most of SCO's business is in POS systems and similar other products. All of the Nissan dealerships have a SCO system (whether they realize it or not), and many GM dealership body shops also have SCO systems. These are typically the type of systems SCO sells to, and also the biggest reason *why* it doesn't matter that they are running 10 year old technology software. (SvsV3.2) Because these systems are sold in complete systems AND the integrators are the ones paying the price, the price increase of the OS isn't seen by the end user. The integrator just adds more money to the system and sells it. The integrator doesn't much care, since they are already making a killing on the application software AND hardware they sell to the end user, and SCO is already giving them a big price break as it is. The only people it's hurting is the end user, and SCO doesn't care much abou them anymore. They simply can't compete in that market due partly to the influx of the free unix clones. The type of client SCO is looking for is *not* the same kind of client FreeBSD is looking for. SCO can impress their client base with big $$, because those kind of people implicate high $$ with great software, and unfortunately don't take the time to find out the facts. FreeBSD can't break into that market because of that very reason. Note the type of responses in the article Jonathan quoted. Those who are anti-freeware will continue to be so unless they have to be big $$ for software which may/may not be any better/supported than freeware. When you are overworked, it's alot easier to assume $$ == support than to do your homework and find out the facts. Nate
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