It was thus said that the Great Chuck Guzis once stated: It isn't. A story to somewhat bring this back to topic. Way back in early 1995, I was hired as a consultant (by some friends) to help port the MajorBBS to Unix [1][2]. When released, it was only sold for the commerical Unix systems and they refused to sell a Linux version even though internally, all primary development was done using Linux [3]. Why? Because they could sell the Unix version for 10 times the amount of the MS-DOS version. The people interested in a Linux version was a very small subset of their customer base, and wouldn't pay more than the MS-DOS price for the Linux version. So why not sell the Unix version at the same price as the MS-DOS version? Because the Unix commercial market wouldn't buy it at that price---it's too cheap. Another company I consulted for a few years later had a product they sold for a variety of platforms, everything from PCs running Windows up to Stratus mainframes [4]. It was the same code base for everything, yet the pricing varied widely depending upon the platform. I think it was $1,500 for Windows, $5,000 for Unix, and $50,000 for mainframes. Same code base. It's all about what the market perceives is the "correct" price for the software. -spc (Glad to be working with open source software ... ) [1] http://www.kenmaier.com/gcomm/mbbsunix.htm I knew Ken and Mahesh, who did the initial test port of the MajorBBS [2] I only last two weeks there---too much of a culture clash and I didn't agree with the coding standards. [3] Later they gave in to customer demand and sold a Linux version. [4] I think that's the right name. I remember a few stories I was told about their Stratus mainframe they had to help port their software. Once, they rebooted their Stratus from one operating system to another, and twenty minutes later a representative from Stratus called the company asking if they were having problems with the computer as they noticed an unscheduled power cycle. Yes, the mainframe had a direct phone line back to Stratus. Another time a fan unit shows up at the offices unannouned. Upon investigation, it turns out the Stratus determined the fan was marginal and ordered a replacement part to be installed.