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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!darwin.sura.net!jvnc.net!nuscc!ntuix!eoahmad From: eoahmad@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg (Othman Ahmad) Subject: Re: Funding 4.4BSD Development Message-ID: <1992Jun27.160309.21709@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg> Organization: Nanyang Technological University - Singapore References: <18729@plains.NoDak.edu> Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1992 16:03:09 GMT Lines: 58 In article <18729@plains.NoDak.edu> tinguely@plains.NoDak.edu (Mark Tinguely) writes: : : Let us all admit there is a want for support code -- be it from DEC, : SunSoft, BSDI, etc. There is a need for BSDI-like support. As a personal : thought, I wish it did not come at such a high price (a wedge between : 386bsd and bsd386 forces). I am not sure about US. My experience here is that we do not really get much support even from such companies such as DEC on their VMS. For example we still have problems printing from ultrix to out printers which are connected via decnet to Vax running on VMS. You may say that it is exceptionally difficult but I also have experience with much simpler programs written by local(Malaysian) programmers in interpretive basic working for NCR. When we try to extract more data for further processing, they cannot give us the format of their data storage. Let alone the source code when we are the only customer for that program. Of course they do get work done but not to my efficiency standard. We could have done better. The best support is the source code itself. The only role played by developers is in releasing new versions which may be called support also. : : Previous BSD releases have not been free. The charge was nominal, but : there was a charge. I think we paid $1000.00 for BSD 4.2 a long time : ago; maybe a $400 (?) for the upgrade to 4.3. There was a small charge : if we elected to go to Tahoe, and Reno. BUT IT WAS WORTH THE NOMINAL : CHARGE! : : The important thing, is BSD was fixed base that we learned kernel and system : techniques. I provided working utilities (that vendors were slow or unwilling That is the whole point! : to fix). It gave us source to customize our environment. I gave us the common : ground to experiment. Some of the experiments worked, some did not. In the : process, BSD gave Unix the features we see in "commercial" Unix. BSD MADE : what Unix is today (even look at System V R4). : : Yes, the CSRG is made up of very talented individuals, and also there : is many minds from across the country that contributed to BSD software. : : I think we need to finish BSD 4.4 by either purchasing the software or : set a private fund. We also need to keep BSD software active. We need : a common environment to do our research and our learning. Commercial software : is too restrictive and not a common ground. If we fail to keep a research : environment, Unix devolopement will only happen in big companies, and : new features will be acquired by those with big money or cross-licenses : agreements. : : I know what I am saying involves A TREMENDOUS amount of time and money. : We are also looking a the future of Unix. What is needed is proper marketing. That involves proper pricing and salesmanship. I have a lot of ideas on this but not sure if it is proper to discuss in usenet. -- Othman bin Ahmad, School of EEE, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 2263. Internet Email: eoahmad@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg Bitnet Email: eoahmad@ntuvax.bitnet