Re: [cobalt-developers] nice knowing you all!

[Dennis <dennis@xxxxxxxxx>]

At 09:11 PM 09/22/2000 -0700, Jeff Lasman wrote:
>corliss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
>> Cobalt cashed in on the Linux hype.  To deny otherwise would beggar
reality.
>> They may not be completely profitable yet, but they've certainly benefited
>> from the early hype surrounding the OS.
>
>They've cashed in on more than the hype.  They would have had a lot
>harder a time building an appliance from scratch had they been required
>to use Windows or one of the commercial unices.
>
>And certainly they would have paid a large royalty for the OS; that
>would have impacted their pricing.  Most manufacturers like to sell
>their product for about five times cost of manufacturing.  Though the
>figures aren't that good in the computer world, they're not exactly low,
>either, for the companies which succeed.

Can you spell "B S D"?

In counterpoint, they could have used another "free OS" without the
restrictive GPL license (BSD comes to mind) and built an application driven
appliance rather than trying to generically support LINUX on their box.
Their boxes are nothing special (slow and expensive compared to a 1U PC
alternative), and they are consumed dealing with all of the pitfalls of
linux, keeping up with seemingly daily changes that have little to do with
their product, and dealing with thousands of penguinites who demand
unending support for free...

Supporting Linux proper is a nightmare, and Im sure that a very small
percentage of sales are to people who care...mainwhile the small pct of
those that do are eating their lunch in support time.

Without the "hype", no commercial vendor would use linux, because its not
as good as BSD (an opinion shared by most people with substantial
experience with both) and its license is not friendly to commercial vendors.

Kind of like Steve Madden shoes. They're ugly, uncomfortable and cool to own.

DB
>
>Jeff
>-- 
>Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>nobaloney.net
>P. O. Box 52672
>Riverside, CA  92517
>voice: (909) 787-8589  *  fax: (909) 782-0205
>
>
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