11 Aug
2007
11 Aug
'07
1:52 p.m.
It was thus said that the Great Chuck Guzis once stated:
Another stupid question (forgive me, I am woefully
ignorant about
present-day "state of the Mac" issues:
If OS X is really Unix under the hood, then why do vendors of several
of my high-end applications that are offered in Windoze and OS X
versions all say "We have no plans for a Linux version"? It would
seem to be a pretty easy thing to do.
In the mid-90s, I was hired to help port the MajorBBS from DOS to Unix
[1][2]. While the initial work was done under Linux (0.99? 1.0?)
Galaticomm had no plans of actually *selling* a Linux version (SunOS, yup.
HP? Yup. Linux? Forget it). The rational was: We can sell a Unix
version for $3,000, since that's what the Unix market will bear (and expects
to see as a price [3]). Also, if you run Unix, you know what you are doing.
What Galacticomm was afraid of were DOS users who had heard of Linux, and
wanted to switch for both price reasons (Linux was free) and performance
(less mucking with CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT and the various memory drivers)
and then call them for support issues beyond the scope of what they could
handle ("How do I install Linux?").
The pressure go great enough that Galacticomm finally did release a
version for Linux, then got slammed on the price (the full $3,000 Unix
price), mainly from DOS users who couldn't understand the price
differential [4].
Then again, selling BBS software in the age of the Internet was a losing
proposition [5] and the company couldn't transision itself (severe denial at
that place, let me tell you).
-spc (Probably last used a BBS in 1991 ... )
[1] http://www.kenmaier.com/gcomm/mbbsunix.htm
[2] I only lasted two weeks. I left (or was let go, depending upon who
you ask) because I didn't agree with their coding standards.
[3] If we sell it for the DOS price---$300, then no one that runs Unix
will buy it because it's a "toy" program.
[4] A few years later I worked for a company that sold a database
conversion program for a range of computers, from PCs all the way to
mainframes (it was a cool mainframe). The price---anywhere from
$1,500 (for the PC version) to $50,000 (for the mainframe version).
The kicker? It was the same codebase for all versions.
[5] Once I saw the Internet in 1989, I lost all interest in BBSes, as I
didn't see the point any more. I was probably a bit ahead of the
curve back then.