[rescue] Sun wants money for patch bundles?

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Fri, 13 Apr 2007, Andrew Gaylard wrote:

> It's been 6 months since I last patched my Netra-J running Solaris 9.
> So off I go to sun.com, click around, and try downloading the patch
> bundle.
>
> But I get a message saying something like "you must have a contract to
> proceed".

Sun recently changed their policy to demand cash for patches to Solaris
8 and Solaris 9:

   http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-9-83061-1

I just happened to run across that link two or three weeks ago (just
before they implemented the policy), so I spent the evening downloading
all the recommended patch clusters for 2.5.1 through 9, which I then
burned to DVD with sufficient duplicate copies that I will hopefully
never lose them.

If blank DVDs were to find their way to me, I'd love to move some of
these backup copies offsite, purely in the interests of maintaining my
own systems, of course.

> For a hobbyist, there's no way I'm shelling out $240 per year for
> their entry-level contract...

Perhaps if we all donated something approaching that level of cash to
our favorite BSD projects instead of Sun so that we'd get more complete
support on our lovely purple hardware....

This is, by the way, a double-stab in the eye for people who actually
-bought- Solaris 8 and Solaris 9 under the presumption that patches
would continue to be available.

-- 
Jonathan Patschke ) "If we keep our pride, though paradise is lost, we
Elgin, TX        (   will pay the price, but we cannot count the cost."
USA               )                             --Neil Peart, "Bravado"