On Tue, 22 May 90 11:59:07 EDT <DAVID@PENNDRLS> said:
>                               . . .In order to make a decision as to
>whether or not to install this product, we would like information on (1)
>cost of obtaining the software, (2) approximate amount of staff time
>required to install it (3) approximate amount of staff time required to
>maintain it, and (4) approximate maginitude of the computing resources
>it consumes (PENNSAS is an IBM 4341 L2 and PENNDRLS is an IBM
>3090-200E). . .
 
I'll make a try at answering.
 
1)  Cost:  Quoting from the LISTSERV installation document:
 
 
 "Three different categories of software licenses are available:
 
     "Free licenses: the software is provided free of charge for use  in
      computers   connected   to   non-profit  academic  or  educational
      networks, including but not limited to BITNET, EARN and  NetNorth.
      Use of this software on computers connected to commercial or mili-
      tary  networks,  or  on private or local networks which do not fit
      into one of the aforesaid categories, is subject to  prior  agree-
      ment  from  the  author  and  possible enforcement of a commercial
      license (see below).  Free licenses do not entitle the customer to
      any kind of warranty nor to any  warrantied  software  maintenance
      period.    See  section    "Program  maintenance"  below  for more
      details.
 
     "Commercial licenses with one-time charge: . . .
 
     "Commercial licenses with monthly charge:  . . . "
 
It would appear that your site falls into the non-profit category.  I.e.,
"the price is right."
 
2.  Installation, including the establishment of a discussion list or
two shouldn't take more than a day or two of an experienced VM pro-
grammer's time.
 
3.  Maintenance duties are minimal.  New releases come from Eric and
the site has the option of configuring LISTSERV so that new releases
install themselves.  Or you can look over the shipment and then hit
the "GO" button.  It really is as easy as that.  Aside from new
releases, there isn't much maintenance activity--things don't break
in our experience.  LISTSERV needs to be notified every month when
a new BITEARN NODES arrives so that it can rebuild its link tables.
 
4.  System resources:  On our 3081KX (about half the power of your
3090-200E) SMART reports LISTSERV using about 0.02% (not 2%) of the
CPU.  We support a number of fairly active lists and their archives
and the disk utilization totals about 40 cylinders of 3380.
 
To obtain the software, write to Eric Thomas (ERIC@SEARN).