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

Insanity First!

[Bowie J. Poag]

I keep trying to tell you people, but everyone just laughs... Sun has been encouraging their employees to put "insanity first" when it comes to their business decisions. What more proof do you people need?

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.