unlimited vs. 1-2 users

[Bob Palowoda]

>From article <192 at van-bc.UUCP>, by sl at van-bc.UUCP (Stuart Lynne):
> In article <983 at fiver.UUCP> palowoda at fiver.UUCP (Bob Palowoda) writes:
>>From article <=.F1X5Gxds13 at ficc.uu.net>, by peter at ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva):

[stuff about Bell Tech deleted]

> While Bell Tech apparantly did make subtle changes to the Everex controller
> card and drive addressing, it was so that their software could recognize
> when it was being used with a Bell Tech controller. This prevented people
> from buying the hardware from other sources and using Bell Tech's driver
> software (ie pirating the software). 

 Lordy, and to say this man's driveing the strategy of "Shrink Wrap UNIX".
Actually I find this technique of locking in customers very repulsive.
If they wanted to be protect the hardware to the software, considering
if it was that good why didn't they just add hardware encryption. This 
is all considering if your statement is true. Hey I got nothing against
Dimitri, in fact I give him a thumbs up for trying to bring an inexpensive
UNIX to the masses. But than there is the other face. If in fact the
tape drives where more expensive than what the competitors where offering
them I would think the customer would be skidish in being locked into 
buying expensive hardware. After all what kind of customer would be 
attracted to the inexpensive unix version would also shop for inexpensive
hardware. You idea about preventing pirating of software seems more like
magic dust. Archive themself offer drivers. Free never the less. It's 
not a big deal anyways.  

  It will be interesting to find out on what hardware Intels 4.0 runs
on when it gets into the marketplace. 

  By the way a gentleman called me all the way from the east side of
Canada and spent 20 minutes of time explaining how Intel supports
the Bell Tech products. That's all the way to california, and I wasn't
even shopping for unix. I'm impressed. Which brings up another question
if Intel's going for the shrink wrap market do we expect to see
in software "retail outlets". 

---Bob

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