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- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
- Path: sparky!uunet!microsoft!wingnut!petesk
- From: petesk@microsoft.com (Pete Skelly)
- Subject: Re: CD ROM Drives (was Re: Windows quicksand)
- Message-ID: <1992Jul22.051804.6852@microsoft.com>
- Date: 22 Jul 92 05:18:04 GMT
- Organization: Microsoft Corporation
- References: <1992Jul14.162438.23205@jpradley.jpr.com> <1992Jul14.212349.15478@adobe.com> <975@engcon.marshall.ltv.com>
- Lines: 63
-
- In article <975@engcon.marshall.ltv.com> rodgers@engcon.UUCP (KMRODGERS) writes:
- >In article <1992Jul14.212349.15478@adobe.com> byer@adobe.com (Scott Byer) writes:
- >>Jeff Markel writes
- >>> I'm a "professional"....I don't have a CD-ROM drive, nor do I know anyone
- >>> who does, other than a yupster who wanted an on-line
- >>> encyclopedia for his 2 year-old.
- >>It's the 90's, dude.
- >>CD-Rom is now the distribution method of choice in the
- >>workstation market. NeXT, SGI, and Dec all distribute
- >>OS releases and documentation on CD-Rom. Apple
- > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- >[rest deleted]
- >
- >Although I'm a proponent of software distribution on CD-ROM, I believe that
- >its market acceptance is far less than Scott implies. The indicated part
- >above shows this; yes, OS releases in the Unix world are usually on CD-ROM,
- >but very few third-party applications are. In the DEC and Sun world, almost
- >all of the third-party apps come on TK-50 (DEC) or 1/4" cartridge (Sun).
- >Matlab, MATRIXx, Anvil, Unigraphics, PV-Wave, WordPerfect, etc. are all on
- >tape. Vendors are moving to CD-ROM, but I venture a guess that it will take
- >at least three more years before the majority of workstation software will
- >be released on CD-ROM.
-
- Most workstations have, or are hooked up to machines that have tape drives.
- A tape drive, however, is not common for pc's. To install such a system
- in my pc would have a cost similar to that of a CDROM. How fast would the
- change be if Workstation software was installed from floppy. I suspect
- sysadmins would easily get a CDROM drive if the the medium was avaliable
- for distribution.
-
- >
- >For home users, the main problem is still the price of the drives. To get
- >a good-performance drive, you still have to shell out at least $400. Unless
- >I'm a software professional who can't get along without stuff that's only out
- >on CD-ROM, I can't justify this kind of expense for my home system.
-
- I don't see home users needing a CDROM in the near future to get software
- releases. Home users are a relatively small market, and the apps they
- require are small. The corporate and small business markets are large,
- however, and require larger applications in many cases. These are the
- guys who would most need CDROM as an instalation method. In addition,
- such systems are networked, so you'd only need one CDROM for workgroup.
- Divide the cost of the drive over 10-20 machines, and you get $20-$40.
- Divide that over only a few apps, and you get under $10, per app per machine,
- which looks pretty good. And instead of having a gazillion floppies to deal
- with, which are always getting lost, or mixed up, or whatever, You have
- one CD per app
-
-
- If you're worried about having to buy an expensive CDROM drive for your home
- system, well, only worry about it if you want multimedia apps. Apps for home
- use will most probably be distributed on floppy for a while.
- I mean really, do you really need the Windows NT PDK on your home system.
- If you do, then it's not a home system, 'cause you're using it for
- professional software development.
- >------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- >Kevin Rodgers LTV Aerospace rodgers%engcon@uunet.uu.net
- >I only speak (in tongues) for Brother Bob Tilton!
- >------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- peteks@microsoft.com
- My opinions are beamed into my brain by space aliens, not Microsoft.
-
-