Unlimited software warranties

[Jeff Liebermann]

In article <1991Mar19.184548.11056 at ico.isc.com> rcd at ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes:

>    it's slow--memory is cheap and CPUs keep getting faster.  I think
>    Peter's idea of "UNIX Classic" is neat, but I doubt you could give it
>    away to more than a handful of people.

You would have no trouble selling Unix Classic to me.  I keep small
Xenix installations (cash registers, point of sale, hospital ER,
telemarketing, acctg, fax servers, email servers) alive.  These
machines run 3 major programs: the application software, uucico,
and mail.  I dont need most of the new and wonderful Unix features.
My customers pay me for speed and reliability.  Features that are
not needed are suppose to be purchased as required.  I still have
some retail stores running Xenix 286 (NOT 386) with 2Mb ram and
a 40Mb slow drive on ancient terminals.

Most of my customers have asked what it would cost to get "real"
Unix.  No problem, just add:
	6 Mb more ram
	80 Mb more disk space
	a larger tape backup device
	a runtime upgrade cost equal to twice what they paid for Xenix.
For no extra charge, one also gets:
	A 20% overall performance drop (my estimate).
	A large (80%) reliablity drop measured in service hours per month.

These are not serious for corporate America, but fatal for the
small business.  The cost of the Unix runtime becomes a very large
part of the delivered system cost on small installations.  Unix
is not going to show up in the small retail environment until a
cheap runtime (like Xenix) appears.

On the subject of money-back warrantys:  I tend to be somewhat
suspicious of companies offering money-back guarantees.  When a
company is unable to support a product, they sometimes offer money
back guarantees to reduce the 10% of the customers that make 90%
of the noise.  It's simply expedient business.  I don't believe
that Mt Xinu had this in mind when they offered their warranty.

With Unix, it's very difficult to evaluate a product within the
usual warranty periods.  Suitability for re-sale takes even longer.
I don't base my business on a quick evaluation.  It takes real
usage, experimentation, and lots of midnight oil to properly
determine if I can sell and support a program or Unix flavour.
I don't plan to partake in a kamakazi evaluation of Mt Xinu Unix.
It would take me about 6 months.  This is well past a reasonable
warranty return period.

[Not associated with SCO, ISC, UHC, Mt XINU, IBM, UPORT, ad nausium]


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