Re: Upgrade fee for cisam from IRIX 405 to IRIX 5.2

jgordon@ssf-sys.DHL.COM (Jim Gordon) writes: >> How can a product that we have paid maintenance on attract an upgrade fee? >> I might add for the duration of CISAM 4.1 usage (2 years) we have had no >> need to report any faults or got any fixes. >> -- >I'm not sure why you would be surprised. This is no different from >buying maintenance on a video recorder or washing machine. If nothing >goes wrong its wasted money but if you need it the supplier is using >that money to maintain spare parts (bug fix releases) and a support >network (hotline, technical support engineers) so that your equipment >(software) can be fixed. When it comes time to replace your washing >machine with a new model with lots of new facilities you don't get the >new one for free. You buy it and hopefully get a discount by trading >in the previous model (upgrade prices are lower than buying new). I take Jim's comments as valid and worthy BUT we have been paying NZ$120 per month and have received 3 free upgrades to the product through IRIX 3.3 to IRIX 405. Hence our surprise. The fee of NZ$580 is trivial compared with the maintenance cost. Communication between our local vendor and Informix seems to have crashed and with it the original agreement. -- Ray Martin Unix Administrator/Analyst Computer Centre, Auckland University mail address rw.martin@auckland.ac.nz phone 09 3737599 ext 8948; fax 09 3737425 I need that 6.5% now.