Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: ESR and Apple's irrelevance

Author:Seth Gordon
Posted:8/28/2000; 8:45:40 AM
Topic:ESR and Apple's irrelevance
Msg #:20388 (In response to 20310)
Prev/Next:20387 / 20389

Last time I checked (which was a while ago), Eazel's business plan was to give away the UI and then sell system administration support -- so you sign up for their service, pay $100/year (or whatever), and then call their 800 number when you don't know how to configure your modem.

I can imagine them making a mint off of this. On the other hand, I can also imagine them discovering that the price that gets customers for the support service is too low to cover the cost of all the phone calls they get. Back on the first hand, the more work they put into tools that simplify system administration (or at least, that simplify diagnosis of administration problems), the easier it will be for their staff to handle the support jobs. Back on the second hand, Unix and Linux system administration involves such a rat's nest of /etc files, providing so many ways to hose yourself (I think I find a new one every month :-), that MacOS X may have the last laugh.

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