> HOWEVER, much of the discussion on this list has been the perceived high > price of the new Linux with support at $11,500 per engine. In talking to my > buyer and to some other people, it turns out that only a few customers will > pay that price. In fact, only those who purchase the full product with all > the bells and whistles and who will be running it on a big z/900 will pay > that price.
In this context (until next week at least) all z900s are the same size - the difference between small and large is the number of engines enabled. Given that mainframe charges are normally degressive with size, I'd expect the large ones to pay less per engine than the smaller ones - not the reverse. > I can't discuss the price we paid for it, but it's nowhere near > $11,500. It depends when. Since the mandatory bundle, or before it? SuSE monitor this list. If there have been any material errors, they can correct them by posting themselves or by asking anyone who posted anything incorrect for a retraction - which I for one would be delighted to give as I find forcing users to take maintenance to get a product a reprehensible practice no matter where it occurs. It isn't that long ago that the industry fought IBM to make it unbundle hardware maintenance so that the third party maintenance companies could get a foothold - and look what happened to mainframe maintenance prices immediately afterwards. At this very moment the EU is taking action against automobile manufacturers to free up the service and mainentance market by forcing them to make documentation and special service tools available to independents. As has been pointed out, SuSE do not have a monopoly - in fact they have something close to the reverse of one. The market will decide. -- Phil Payne The Devil's IT Dictionary - last updated 2002/01/20: http://www.isham-research.com/dd.html UK +44 7785 302803 Germany +49 173 6242039
