Checksum: 37465
Path: utzoo!utgpu!craig
From: craig@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Craig Hubley)
Date: Mon, 19-Jun-89 02:17:30 EDT
Message-ID: <1989Jun19.021730.21595@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Organization: University of Toronto Computing Services
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: What's coming?
References: <65100001@tippy> <3015@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: craig@gpu.utcs.UUCP (Craig Hubley)

In article <3015@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> gerrit@nova.cc.purdue.edu (Gerrit) writes:

>use the Key system that NeXT is working on to distribute a copy to central
>points (typically University support centers) and sell "keys" to the
>support center which will allow a certain number of copies to be made.  And

Hmm... if NeXT is working on this then they might be taking a unique
approach.  Apollo used to have a License Server that worked over NCS and 
allowed a certain number of copies to be *in use at once*.  I say 'used to'
because now H-P owns Apollo and of course NCS, which has been licensed to
a lot of other folks including DEC and IBM, and probably soon the OSF.
NCS is a pretty cool distributed computing system, it would be nice to
see it on the NeXT anyway.

There's another approach to distribution, which the Japanese call
'superdistribution' (a play on 'superconductivity', I guess) and is
basically a monster ISDN (or something) based service network.  It's
apparently being worked on very seriously as a way to distribute music,
newspapers and movies as well as software.  I have only seen one mention
of it, in the January 1989 Byte where they are interviewing people about
(gasp) 'the future', it was a scientist from Japan whose name and affiliation
I forget.

If anyone knows more about this 'superdistribution' business I'd appreciate
hearing about it.  Among other things, it might revolutionize a lot of 
industries to be run more on innovation and less on marketing bullshit.
At least, I would think that if one could ignore advertising and try
something without having to break shrink wrapping, people would be more
likely to try (paying by time used) before buying (buying a full license
authorizing unlimited use), which would encourage people to buy more
functional products, which would drive the crap-vendors out of business.
Ultimately, people might give up on the idea of 'buying' thereby changing
a 'product' industry into a 'service' industry.  That is, if this thing
from Japan is actually going to be interactive.  Sometimes Japanese 
inventions are brilliant but with flaws so brain-damaged and crippling that
it's unbelievable:  why aren't digital HDTV pixels square ?  Unbelievable!

	Craig Hubley			-------------------------------------
	craig@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu	"Lead, follow, or get out of the way"
	mnetor!utgpu!craig@uunet.UU.NET -------------------------------------
	{allegra,bnr-vpa,cbosgd,decvax,ihnp4,mnetor,utzoo,utcsri}!utgpu!craig

-- 
	Craig Hubley			-------------------------------------
	craig@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu	"Lead, follow, or get out of the way"
	mnetor!utgpu!craig@uunet.UU.NET -------------------------------------
	{allegra,bnr-vpa,cbosgd,decvax,ihnp4,mnetor,utzoo,utcsri}!utgpu!craig
