From: petesk@microsoft.com (Pete Skelly)
Subject: Re: CD ROM Drives (was Re: Windows quicksand)
Date: 22 Jul 92 05:18:04 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corporation

In article <975@engcon.marshall.ltv.com> rodgers@engcon.UUCP (KMRODGERS) writes:
>In article <1992Jul14.212349.15478@adobe.com> byer@adobe.com (Scott Byer) writes:
>>Jeff Markel writes
>>> I'm a "professional"....I don't have a CD-ROM drive, nor do I know anyone
>>> who does, other than a yupster who wanted an on-line
>>> encyclopedia for his 2 year-old.
>>It's the 90's, dude.
>>CD-Rom is now the distribution method of choice in the
>>workstation market.  NeXT, SGI, and Dec all distribute
>>OS releases and documentation on CD-Rom.  Apple
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>[rest deleted]
>
>Although I'm a proponent of software distribution on CD-ROM, I believe that
>its market acceptance is far less than Scott implies.  The indicated part
>above shows this; yes, OS releases in the Unix world are usually on CD-ROM,
>but very few third-party applications are.  In the DEC and Sun world, almost
>all of the third-party apps come on TK-50 (DEC) or 1/4" cartridge (Sun).
>Matlab, MATRIXx, Anvil, Unigraphics, PV-Wave, WordPerfect, etc. are all on
>tape.  Vendors are moving to CD-ROM, but I venture a guess that it will take
>at least three more years before the majority of workstation software will
>be released on CD-ROM.

Most workstations have, or are hooked up to machines that have tape drives.
A tape drive, however, is not common for pc's.  To install such a system
in my pc would have a cost similar to that of a CDROM.  How fast would the
change be if Workstation software was installed from floppy.  I suspect
sysadmins would easily get a CDROM drive if the the medium was avaliable
for distribution.

>
>For home users, the main problem is still the price of the drives.  To get
>a good-performance drive, you still have to shell out at least $400.  Unless
>I'm a software professional who can't get along without stuff that's only out
>on CD-ROM, I can't justify this kind of expense for my home system.

I don't see home users needing a CDROM in the near future to get software
releases.  Home users are a relatively small market, and the apps they 
require are small.  The corporate and small business markets are large,
however, and require larger applications in many cases.  These are the
guys who would most need CDROM as an instalation method.  In addition,
such systems are networked, so you'd only need one CDROM for workgroup.
Divide the cost of the drive over 10-20 machines, and you get $20-$40.
Divide that over only a few apps, and you get under $10, per app per machine,
which looks pretty good.  And instead of having a gazillion floppies to deal
with, which are always getting lost, or mixed up, or whatever,  You have
one CD per app


If you're worried about having to buy an expensive CDROM drive for your home
system, well, only worry about it if you want multimedia apps.  Apps for home
use will most probably be distributed on floppy for a while.
I mean really, do you really need the Windows NT PDK on your home system.
If you do, then it's not a home system, 'cause you're using it for
professional software development.
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Kevin Rodgers  LTV Aerospace  rodgers%engcon@uunet.uu.net
>I only speak (in tongues) for Brother Bob Tilton!
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------

peteks@microsoft.com
My opinions are beamed into my brain by space aliens, not Microsoft.

Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy