software releases
ucbvax!works
Software releases will only be different in the future in that there will
be many more machines, and any individual one may not have a boot device.
Things that will continue to have releases are all the standard computer
company software, such as OS, compilers, DBMS, etc. Obviously these
must be backward compatible with applications packages. So what's new?
As long as the interfaces are compatible, there will be no problem.
As to the physical mechanism for distributing software, it can follow
the old style of sending a new tape or floppy. This would be mounted
on an individual machine, or on a network server and then boot over
the net. The CMU VAXs already do this since 12 VAXs share 2 tape
drives over an Ethernet.
The other obvious alternative is simply to ship the new software via
network. Berkeley is hooked to our VAXs. So is DEC. In principle,
all new software releases could be shipped via ARPAnet and Ethernet.
I simply haven't heard anything that makes me think that selling
and servicing software will be any different (except as mentioned
above) than it is now. Remember that large machines already have
the capability for remote diagnosis via the phone of hardware and
software problems while the machine is up and running.
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