Solaris 9: Sticker Shock

sysadmn writes "With the release of Solaris 9 , Sun has bundled many goodies, including an LDAP directory server and a J2EE application server. At the same time, while a single CPU license is still free, they've begun charging for multiprocessor systems. As a kicker, purchasers of used systems may find that they have to pay Sun an OS licensing fee. (Curiously, the 2 CPU server version seems to be $249, while the 4 CPU desktop is $199. In some cases it's the same motherboard, power supply and memory!). At the upper end, that million dollar machine from Ebay may require a $400,000 fee :-) I like Solaris for many reasons, but I have to wonder: will this pay off? " Solaris is certainly a capable os, but sheeze that seems like an awful lot of money.

Comments

Re:UNICOS, Anyone?

[PapaZit]

There's nothing wrong with borrwing the CDs for a version of IRIX your machine can rightfully use.

This is like saying "There's nothing wrong with using Windows 2000 on a machine that came with 98 if it also came with a Microsoft keyboard and mouse." You can justify it however you like, but it's still theft if you don't have a license.

I have an Indigo 2 at home that was going to be thrown away. I have the hardware, the original OS CDs (5.3, I think), and a transfer of ownership statement from the original owner. SGI still wants $600 to bring the machine up to 6.5 legally.

I decided to use another OS (NetBSD) that could be installed legally instead of paying SGI or stealing their software.