Commercial Use of Plan 9

[G. David Butler gdb@dbSystems.com]

OK, so now you have "researched" Plan 9 from Bell Labs, er, Lucent
Technologies and have decided that it would make a reasonable platform
for some application.  Now what?

I am about ready to get neck deep in the kernel and tools to prepare
the system to host an application.  I am only interested in using PCs
for my system so I need to add multiple ethernets and possibly SMP
support.  Before I start investing all this time, I need to know that
I can legally use the system after I'm done.

I called Lucent and found that they only sub-license Plan 9 much the
way AT&T sub-licensed UNIX.  You pay some $$$ to play and some $ per
copy that you sell.  They could not tell me of anyone yet selling it.

I see an opportunity!  (I know this is on the fuzzy edge of
commercial use of this list, so if I have stepped over the line,
I apologize.)  The licensing per node is based on how the node
is used.  There are three types:

Appliance: a low end fixed function device such as a personal
	communicator, game device, set-top box, remote control,
	garage door opener, etc.

Personal One User Client: a general purpose computing device such
	as a single user (uni-processor) personal computer or
	workstation commonly used as a client processor.
	i.e. a Plan9 terminal.

Server: a computing device in a network that controls access to all
	or part of the network and its resources (such as client
	computing devices, disk drives, printers, etc.)
	i.e. a Plan9 file or cpu server.  Note: there is not a limit
	to the number of CPUs in the node.

I am thinking of forking out the $$$.  I see two senarios:

1) Someone has purchased the source from Lucent and they want
licenses to commercially use the resulting system.  (Note: I
would not have a sub-license to distribute the source.)  I
would distribute a Plan 9 kernel object for the node to comply
with the sub-license agreement.

2) Someone wants to purchase a full binary distribution of the
system.  They could use the system commercially.  I don't see
this happening initially since I would have to press a CD, and
print documentation.  Perhaps later.

I don't plan on making the system look like another *NIX.  There
are plenty of those.  So don't expect X, curses and other such
cruft added.  Expect a system that becomes more robust and able
to host distributed applications better.  It would be nice to
add Inferno's Styx extensions to 9P so Inferno will drive the
interactive graphics side with Plan 9 as the server side.

To determine if this is a reasonable thing to do, I need to know
how much interest there is and at what level.  Please e-mail to
me the number of licenses of each type you might purchase this year.
Since I think everybody in this list would like to know the results
of this query, I will post it in one week.  If you do not want to
be mentioned by name, please tell me.

The last question is how much?  I'm looking to recover the initial
$$$ and then license the nodes in senario 1) above at 10% over the
cost of the Lucent royalty.  So if I can get commitments initially
at 10% over cost to cover the inital $$$, then we're in business.
Otherwise the response to the email will tell me if there is a
business here.

Since anyone can call Lucent and get the quotes I got, I don't think
I'm telling any state secrets, so the prices are...  (All prices
are in US $).

The initial $$$ is $ 25,000
Appliance $   1 or 20% of software retail, whichever is greater.
Client    $  10 or 20% of software retail, whichever is greater.
Server    $ 100 or 20% of software retail, whichever is greater.

So the prices I will charge are $1.10, $11 and $110 respectively.
If I can't get those commitments, but there is enough interest,
then: $2, $20 and $200.

Let me know!

David Butler
gdb@dbSystems.com