Gavin responds at length on this thread:
> ... , what would be an acceptable way to distinguish
> a cheap/free version of the product from the "full
> featured" version, and what, if anything, would
> people be willing to pay for it?
>
> Some things we could do ...
>
> Restrict, by license, the use of the product ...
>
> Limit the performance of the cheap version. ...
>
> Limit the resource available in the cheap version...
>
> We could limit I/O connectivity in various ways, ...
>
> We could set the HPUSERLIMIT to, say, two.
>
> Limit (or eliminate) network functionality ...
>
> Fix the HPSUSAN number and/or HPCPUNAME ...
Speaking just for myself as someone who wants to buy a
copy of the emulator, if I get a "vote" it's pretty easy
for me to vote for "limit resources"; specifically for
a limitation on max disc space. This would seem to
allow for maximum end-user "development" flexibility;
while still providing for a good "hard limit" to any
(or at least almost all) serious production use.
If somehow limiting disc space on development version
did not work out, suppose my second choice would be
"set HPUSERLIMIT"... Although if that were chosen, I
would gently plug for HPUSERLIMIT = at least 3 instead
of two. Rationale: You could have two "active test"
sessions + a "monitoring session".
> If you have to pay $500 for the MPE license, can you
> still afford a few hundred more to get a more
> professionally packaged emulator with some degree of
> support, or would you rather have a free or almost-
> free version that you download and which we can't afford
> to even answer your emailed questions about :-)
Again speaking just for me: No contest: I would be
willing and would in fact much prefer to pay "a few
hundred more" to get "some degree of support". What
we are looking at is moving all of MPE into a completely
new and "foreign" environment; It's unreasonable to
think there won't be questions and issues along the way.
Unless someone is thinking of getting an MPE emulator
stricktly as an idle-curiosity, we-don't-really-care-
what-it-does-(or doesn't)-do toy for when they go to the
old programmers rest home, we're gonna need at least
some level of professional support, IMO...
> We could not sell a cheap version independently, but
> include a certain number of limited development/support
> licenses (limited as above) with each "production" license.
> So to get your laptop 3000 you would have to get your
> company to buy a production license.
Darn... shoot... rats...: Without getting into the
byzantine maze of "our company" right now, at least until
they give up on what are IMO some unreasonable expectations
it's gonna be REAL hard for me to sell "my company" on
buying a production MPE emulator in the near term. But I
do very much want to get a "laptop version" that I will pay
for out of my own pocket (or; rather: A "desktop version")
of MPE.. Gavin, are you saying I'm going to be out of luck
as far as any effort you may undertake ??... Or by "cheap
version" did you (hope, hope) mean to refer only to your
prior "free or almost-free version that you download" ?
Please, please: I hope all potential emulator sources can
come up with a way to take my money for a stand-alone
development "professionally packaged emulator"; that will
NOT require simultaneous purchase a full production version.
> We could try to do more "tiered" pricing (ick) on the
> production version ..... In this scenario the "918"
> (930? :-)) version of the emulator might be so cheap that
> you wouldn't need more than one "version".
I share your "ick", but if there was no other way to do it
that would allow me to get a desktop MPE emulator, this
would be much better than the other option; i.e.: Not
getting one at all (at least for now).
SIDEBAR: Hey, don't belittle the 930: We actually HAD one
for a few months in late 1986 / early 1987; before HP gave
us a 935 replacement at no charge... Sometimes it would
even stay up on MPE/XL 1.0 without crashing for as long as
a whole day or two (we went in to production on 1.1).. :-)
> ... Of course if you want to tell me exactly how much
> money you have to spend, that would be fine :-)
Well, of course the standard answer is: As little as
possible... but if I set that aside and try and give an
honest, objective answer: Right now I would say that out
of my own pocket I would be willing to pay about $1000 to
get "all of MPE" running on a development version of an
emulator on my WinTel platform; regardless of what "my
(current) company" does or does not do.
Angling for the best possible deal, I would go further and
add: If one of the prospective MPE emulator companies were
willing to give some kind of "early bird" discount soon
after we know the "hard number" the HP MPE license is going
to cost, I would be willing to send them some cash up front
(perhaps with the caveat that if they never deliver a real
working emulator I would get some level of refund (I'll
take the risk that they will still be in business for
whatever number of years it takes to deliver a production
version) ).
> I would also be interested in hearing what people would
> guess is the number of production emulator licenses that
> could be sold. I think you'll find that the actual number
> is actually around 1/10 of what the average guess would be.
Many others on this list can probably provide a much better
guess than I can... While those "other people" are perhaps
trying to attempt that, I'll throw another question back at
the potential emulator companies; if they care to bite:
Just for argument's sake assume that the average gross sales
price of a production emulator ends up being $5000. Any idea
how many of same you would have to sell in order to make it
appear to be worthwhile to seriously undertake the effort ?.
Note that I pick a number per average emulator because I
expect it is not just total gross revenue that matters; i.e:
Overall costs would be different if (extreme exaggeration)
one emulator was sold to one company for $500,000; compared
to selling 1000 emulators to 500 companies for $500 each
(in addition to the HP MPE license fee)...
Ken Sletten
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