From Tom Donaldson

Here is the information I've gathered on supporting ACL on new platforms.  It
leaves us with a few different options; I won't favor any particular option for
now.



For Lisp items we already have from Franz, we paid the following initial
prices:

Allegro CL Enterprise Site License v5.0.1 for Solaris:   $10,000
Allegro CLIM Site v2.2 for Solaris:                       $2,500

Allegro ORBLink Site License for Solaris:                $10,000
Allegro ORBLink Runtime v1.0 for Solaris:                 $2,500
                                                         -------
Total Initial Fees:                                      $25,000

Then we pay 25% of that every year for support and upgrades (i.e.,
$6,250/year).


According to the quote I received from Franz, each of those items would
have the same price for each additional platform.  Apparently they sell
a multi-platform license for the products, but that costs the same as 5
individual platform licenses, so is only worthwhile if we're supporting
more than 5 platforms.

So, for example, if we wanted to get all those products for both Linux
and Windows, with ongoing support for those and Solaris, we would
pay $50,000 initially, plus $18,750 every year after that.

(It was pointed out that we do get a substantial discount for being an
acedemic institution.  For example, we paid $10,000 for our Solaris
site license, whereas a commercial institution would be charged $50,000.)

Here's the whole breakdown:

              Product                                   Initial    Yearly
              -------                                   -------    ------
Allegro CL Enterprise Site License v5.0.1 for Solaris:   <paid>    $2,500
Allegro CLIM Site v2.2 for Solaris:                      <paid>      $625
Allegro ORBLink Site License for Solaris:                <paid>    $2,500
Allegro ORBLink Runtime v1.0 for Solaris:                <paid>      $625

Allegro CL Enterprise Site License v5.0.1 for Linux:    $10,000    $2,500
Allegro CLIM Site v2.2 for Linux:                        $2,500      $625
Allegro ORBLink Site License for Linux:                 $10,000    $2,500
Allegro ORBLink Runtime v1.0 for Linux:                  $2,500      $625

Allegro CL Ent. Site License v5.0.1 for Win. 95/98/NT:  $10,000    $2,500
Allegro CLIM Site v2.2 for Win. 95/98/NT:                $2,500      $625
Allegro ORBLink Site License for Win. 95/98/NT:         $10,000    $2,500
Allegro ORBLink Runtime v1.0 for Win. 95/98/NT:          $2,500      $625
                                                        -------    ------
Totals:                                                 $50,000   $18,750

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since those products are rather expensive, and since after an initial
port, we may not use the other platforms for more than building and
testing, I asked about the costs for individual seats.

An individual seat license is only supposed to be installed on one machine,
and is intended for only one user.

A seat license can only be upgraded to a site license within 3 months of
purchase.

That breakdown, not including the $6,250/year for our existing Solaris
site licenses would be:

              Product                            Initial/seat  Yearly/seat
              -------                            ------------  -----------
Allegro CL Enterprise v5.0.1 for any platform:      $3,000        $750
Allegro CLIM v2.2 for any platform:                   $500        $125
Allegro ORBLink for any platform:                   $1,500        $375
Allegro ORBLink Runtime v1.0 for any platform:      $2,500        $625
                                                 ------------  ----------
Totals:                                             $7,500      $1,875

Minimum to support both Linux and Windows:         $15,000      $3,750

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

In answer to my questions about how their products are different on the
different platforms, I got the following response:

The main differences between ACL on Unix and LInux and WIndows is the
common Graphics. Both Unix and Linux have the composer, so you will
find them to be the exact same.  Windows has an IDE for its CG, which
you should find to be very similar and many of our customers find it to
be even easier to use than Composer. The debugging is only slightly
different for the three systems, and it is the same in how you use it.
In terms of ORBLink, runtime, and CLIM, they are all the same. We have
designed the products so that the feel of all three systems is almost
identical, and you should not have any problems.

