DRAFT Agenda for SLUG/SMBX Meeting of 15 December

[Barry Margolin <barmar@THINK.COM>]

    Date: Tue, 19 Dec 89 17:32:44 -0600
    From: forbus@cs.uiuc.edu (Kenneth Forbus)

    I get hardware and software bug fixes for free all the time for other
    computers I own.  Vendors of micros and software for them often think
    that if their product doesn't work properly, they should fix it.  Two
    outstanding companies in this regard are Borland and COMPAQ.  (To be
    fair, not all of them are reasonable in this regard, but I'll bet you
    can tell who I tend to buy things from.)

Anyone who doesn't charge for maintenance is including it in the price
of the unit.  In the case of micros, the volume of sales is such that it
can be amortized across more units, so it doesn't affect the price as
much.

    For workstations other vendors have been willing to offer very
    reasonable prices, generally less for a year's maintenance per machine
    than Symbolics wants for a month per machine.

I believe maintenance on XL400 costs similar to maintenance on a
comparable Sun (don't forget to include maintenance on the disk).

                                                barmar