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Compile Farms for Commercial Software?

Posted by Cliff on from the for-unix-shops-with-low-hardware-budgets dept.

unix-coder asks: "How can a small software company get to 'rent' accounts for short times on a wide range of machines running different commercial Unixes with different CPUs? SourceForge's compiler farms are great for open source projects (and besides, open source projects will get ported/tested/fixed on all the platforms that matter to the people that use them). But what about commercial projects where you want to port/build/test for a wide range of architectures and OSes (AIX, HP-UX, IRIX, ...) but don't want your several server rooms full of weird hardware of your own?"

3 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. If SourceForge wants to make money... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They should sell this service for closed source types. They've obviously got the know how to do it.

    Yes, making money! It can be done.

  2. Re:Call vendors...ask for demo units. by aridhol · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Another advantage of using old hardware is that you will test your code on a low-spec machine. You will know that it is usable on a low-spec machine, and will probably fight software bloat to make it run on your own test machines.

    If marketing makes you add something, you can always make them run it on your test boxes, too. Show them why it's a bad idea.

    --
    I can't say that I don't give a fuck. I've just run out of fuck to give.
  3. Use machines at vendor's offices by gadfium · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is what I did about 10 years ago, when I was selling a program on many different versions of Unix.

    I bought the most common 386 unix versions (SCO Xenix, SCO Unix, 386/ix), and had one risc machine (an AViiON, since DG was my main customer base). If a user wanted an RS6000 version, I just rang my local branch of IBM, arranged a time to pop in, and compiled my latest code on a machine there. It cost IBM nothing, and may have sold a few machines for them.