🚀 go-pugleaf

I missed the original article, so I don't want to get too deeply into this, 
but a few comments:

In article <1992Jul30.104534.144@weyrich.UUCP> orville%weyrich@tnet.com (Orville R. Weyrich) writes:
    In article <1992Jul27.152021.9219@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu> rick@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu (Richard Warner) writes:
    >orville%weyrich@tnet.com (Orville R. Weyrich) writes:
    >
    >>For about $300/node I can set up TCP/IP and NFS to share files between
    >>OS/2 and MS-DOS/Windows platforms :-(

Actually, you could set up our TCP/IP (with an NFS client) on OS/2 or
DOS for (I think) $175 per node if you have at least 20 such nodes.
The DOS side could be much cheaper if you only want NFS (no telnet,
ftp, lpr, bootp, etc.). I think you may be looking only at single copy
prices, while you seem to be setting up a full network.
    
    >TCP stacks can be had for cheap (nothing - using CUTCP or NCSA).  NFS is
    >expensive, generally, because it is costly to implement.  Development 
    >costs are high, plus NFS vendors pay Sun a license fee ....

Thanks for the support, but we don't! Back when we first did InterDrive
you had to pay a fee to use "NFS" in the name (that's why it's
"InterDrive," but the specification is public. Anyone who wants to can
produce an NFS client. Considering the plethora of TCP/IP freeware, I
think it is a good indicator of the difficulty of this task that only
commercial vendors have done so.
    
    Does Sun hold legal title to this market? Or do they "own" the
    market only by virtue of nobody else taking the trouble to code their
    own? 

B & W, FTP and Wollongong all have NFS clients for DOS; IBM and FTP have
them for OS/2. I don't know about Wollongong's offering, but I believe
all the others are home-grown.

Sorry I can't comment more on the pricing issue, but I haven't the least
idea how these things are arrived at. 

--

Frances Kirk Selkirk		 fks@ftp.com	           (617) 246-0900
FTP Software, Inc.		 26 Princess Street, Wakefield, MA  01880