Fwd: Re: $110,000 for Gated Source Code

Tue Jun 9 15:05:43 UTC 1998

Roeland:

Please refer to www.gated.org to the membership pages.
I think your facts are slightly out of wack.  GateD has not
been NSF funded for 2.5 years, and it still has public code.

Perhaps you've not check the web pages for a while and I should
refresh your memory on a few things:

1) Public code - which you are enjoying?? 

The public code is being funded by the "money grubbing" commercial
licenses you so denigrated.  Had you asked instead of flaming
publically, the answer is "start-ups" should apply.  There
is a small commercial license which attempts to cut the fee
for start-ups.  We are also considering ways to try to afford
small ISPs.  I cannot complete these offers (for all those who
have asked as well) until I finish negotating some budget issues.

You are welcome to send back 3.5.9.   I urge you to submit
a redistribution license or to discontinue using 3.5.9.  The
redistribution license is "of course" free.  

Shane's salary is payed by the commercial/"money grubbing" arm.   I don't mind
complaints, but public complaints which are mis-informed are like
bad propaganda - I must publically comment on them.  So, please
next time contact us before commenting publically.  My phone number
is (734)936-2095 and the Merit phone number is (734)764-9430.

We try to address all "free" requests as quickly as possible.  You
will "of course" understand that our "paying" members come first.  
You may lobby for "NSF" funding in which case we will answer "free"
requests as NSF requests.

2) Linux configuration

The linux configuration you see is under:

/gated-pub/src/configs/linux-2.0         linux-README      linux-patch_ip.h

Please refer to this configuration and readme to see if you can
indeed follow the instructions or if they need to be augmented for
your **version** of linux.    

3) Membership fees - $110,000

I'm not sure where you got your facts.

The gold membership is the most expensive of the options.
Gold membership is for members who wish to support the "free" version
you are enjoying. 

Or perhaps you clicked the first button on a long page of membership fees.   
Perhaps reading a bit further might give a few more facts.

3-a) Gold membership

1st - $110,000 is the fee for a first "gold" membership, not a commercial
membership nor a service membership.   It includes membership
in both Unicast and Multicast product lines as well as the ability
for Merit staff to spend up to 6 months training two people
at Merit's site.  The 2nd years paymet is $45,000 for again
2 product lines and up to 6 months of training two people on site.
$15,000 of the 1st year's $110,00 and the 2nd year's $45,000
is for this training.

3-b) Commercial membership 

We charge $50,000 for the 1st years membership and $15,000/year
there after for each membership.  The $50,000 pays for our development
of new code, and the $15,000 is a maintenance fee.  I suspect
that this is in-line with an application not a full routing suite.

For start-ups, we charge $40,000 for the 1st year membershiop and
$15,000/year thereafter for each membership.

3-c) Service memberships 

Service Memberships are $25,000/1st year, $10,000/2nd - nth year
Small Service Memberships are $12,000/ 1styear,  $10,000 2nd -nth year

3-d) New membership categories

We are attempting to finalize this year's budget.  (We've been working on
negotiations related to the budget for 2-3 months.)  Once these
negotiations are completed, we hope to be able to offer some scholarships
to further the GateD work.  

Once the budget negotiations are completed, we will also look to being
able to pursue our work to try to get newer GateD versions into the hands
of linux, netbsd and freebsd folks.  

4) Complaints - please continue

So, Roeland - please complain on.  Complaints are the strength of
a free society and a free internet.  However, your complaints would be 
more enlightening if you had your facts correct.

Please check your facts and your information.   Please ask for help
on the mail groups such as gated-people at merit.edu.

Sue Hares
Director 
Merit GateD Consortium
skh at merit.edu 
(734)936-2095