Why?

[Paul Borman prb@bsdi.com]

It costs a few bucks to make a CD.  It costs a lot of money to be a
corporation, have employees, pay lawyers, etc.  It is *totally*
unfare to compare Linux (or FreeBSD, or ...) to anything that is
done by a corporation.  They are totally different entities.
I am just happy that AT&T even allowed Plan 9 out the door and
made it for such a reasonable cost (I to would have liked it to
be cheaper, but I certainly can't complain about a $350 site
license).

			    -Paul Borman
			     prb@bsdi.com

> My benchmark is Linux. There are 4-CD Linux distributions that sell
> for $25. Surely Plan 9 source, docs & binaries would fit on a couple
> CD's--forget the printed manuals.
> 
> > Regardless, I don't see what the big problem with $350 is. There
> > are a lot of other areas of interest where you would have to justify
> > sums either similar or an order of magnitude larger, that to many
> > will seem unjustifiable.
> 
> I just think Plan 9 would have a bigger impact, and sooner, if it was
> less expensive. Yes, I *could* find $350...if I wanted it that
> badly. Think how many more people would buy it, try it, and hack on it
> if it was $50...
>  
> -- 
> Dave Sill (de5@ornl.gov)          <URL:http://www.digital.com/info/dsill.html>
> Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Oak Ridge National Lab, Workstation Support
>