Per,

Nice to meet you.

The big complaint with VSE is that there are no new applications written for it. A 
cheap hobbyist licenses might result in some great new applications. They might even 
be free (GNU). Open source is where VSE started out anyway.  I work with VSE and they 
need to do something for it to remain healthy. No one would care about VM either if it 
were not for Linux, so VM owes it's health to GNU as well.

The price if the license is entirely artificial. The idea of group pricing was that 
people on smaller processors don't get the same commercial value as people on large 
processors.

What is the commercial value of VSE or VM on a hobbyist's computer?

Certainly not $13000.

Oracle gives it's product away for free for non-commercial use.


Rod
>On Mon, 2 Dec 2002 13:23:42 -0500, Rod Clayton wrote:
>
>>I am also a radio-amateur. The most  expensive thing I have ever purchased
>>was a new HF/VHF/UHF radio for $1400. For antennas I use trees for supports etc.
>>Amateur radio is like boating. You can spend as much as you like, but I would
>>not be an amateur radio operator either if I had to spend $13,000. I don't see
>>how anyone could write GNU software for VSE or VM at that price.
>
>But, (I sound like I'm repeating myself) - then don't write for VM or VSE -
>those are the radio-amateur-world equivalents of EME, OSCARs and microwave 
>experiments.
>Write software for Linux for instance, and it's virtually free.
>
>Re. boating - um, around here boating could be fairly expensive too. Perhaps
>unless we're talking a rowboat and two oars ? I often go sailing with friends
>in the Aegean - not my boat, I just rent my space. But it is pretty damn
>expensive if you want to captain a yacht. In time and money.
>
>btw, glad to meet another one - I'm OZ1HZV.
>
>/Per
>
>regards,
>Per Jessen, Zurich
>http://www.enidan.com - home of the J1 serial console.
>
>Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.


--
Rod Clayton KA3BHY
Systems Programmer
Howard County Public Schools
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

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