hardware costs, again...

Jonathan Leech leech at ornat.cs.unc.edu
Mon May 28 07:22:52 AEST 1990


In article <1990May27.185737.331 at ico.isc.com> rcd at ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes:
>So start a new discussion thread about which manufacturers are willing to
>bribe educational institutions in order to boost interest in their hard-
>ware. (I need a less pejorative word than "bribe", I guess, since it's an
>eminently sensible business practice for the manufacturer and a good deal
>for the purchaser too.  Besides, it's a proven technique in the UNIX com-
>munity, all the way back to UNIX itself.:-)

    This tactic is scarcely confined to Unix workstation vendors.  I
can walk down to the campus bookstore and order a PS/2 or Zenith 386
for well under list.

>We were talking about machines that people can afford to buy for them-
>selves to run UNIX.  If the new Sun box prices don't apply to quantity 1
>end user, it's out of this discussion, period.  It *is* an interesting box,
>but it's not what we were talking about.

    If I buy a DS2100, the university is out of the loop, aside from
my association with it giving me better pricing.  I would work
directly with the area DEC rep and purchase Q1.  I would certainly
consider myself an end user in this case.  You can't simply dismiss
all the people with associations that get them better pricing than you
personally may manage.	Whether Sun will sell Q1 or not, I don't know
(and neither does anyone else in this discussion, apparently), but DEC
certainly will.
--
    Jon Leech (leech at cs.unc.edu)    __@/
    ``There ain't hardly nothin' cuter nor a sleepin' baby tad
      lessen it's a pork chop'' - Churchy La Femme



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