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Re: Inferno release date

In the mail message (forsyth@plan9.cs.york.ac.uk) wrote:
> 
> i don't understand this killer-app requirement.  why should killerapps be any more
> necessary or desirable than killer bees?  Inferno, unlike Java, provides
> a distributed environment with a proper operating system and reasonable interfaces
> in which components can communicate in a structured, sane way in a networked
> environment of heterogeneous machines and operating systems.
> 
> we're free at last!

I am still waiting to hear more on what the licensing agreements are going 
to be like before claiming 'free at last'.  Or at least information on how
they are going to encourage people to use Inferno.  For instance, from
the licensing WWW page http://www.lucent.com/inferno/license/nsp.html there
were three licensing options :

  * Risk Sharing Models 
  * Per subscriber Fees 
  * Site license 

This sounds like $$$ to me.  How is Lucent going to convince people that it
is worth the $$$ and effort to license/install/maintain Inferno?  The killer
app, if really such, might do it, but only until someone does something
similar in Java or such.  

Now, perhaps I am misreading this.  Maybe this is supposed to be the fees
for something like a desktop box provided by, say, cable companies, rather
than ISPs who might otherwise simply develop a matching application that
ran on Java.  

I am not going to get into technical ability comparisons here.  I doubt 
there is something you can do in one that you can't do in the other - 
it's just a matter of difference in effort and cost.  For instance, if
it takes me $100 to develop an application in Inferno, and $1000 to
develop the same one in Java.  However, if I have 200 users, and I need
a $5 per subscriber license per user, then the total cost of the Inferno
solution is $1100 vs. the Java $1000.  Now, these numbers are completely
mythical, and there looks like there will be things like site licenses,
but ... to put it simply, I don't want to have to deal with site licenses,
per subscribe fee tracking, or whathave you - that's a pain.

I would appreciate some clarification in this matter.

Kim
who's seen the "It'll take five weeks to get another user license" problem
-- 
Kim Liu, System Administrator, Intermedia Communications.  kiml@icix.net
Questions, and requests should go to help@icix.net for best response.
"A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" 
                                        - Robert Browning