Jonathan,

Kudos on doing the try-and-buy. Here's a rewrite of the Ts&Cs I sent to Martin Hardee in response to his post on the try-and-buy form:

• TITLE. Sun owns the gear we're going to send you, and you agree not to act or tell anyone otherwise.
• USE OF GEAR. You're going to use the stuff at the place you told us. Let us know if you send it somewhere else. Some of the software and gear might be covered by export laws, so don't send it to another country without talking to us first. (Yeah, the software could be used on other boxes and could be disassembled and reverse engineered up the wazoo, but it's open source, so we don't care, right?)
• RISK OF LOSS. When the box shows up on your doorstep, you're responsible for it. If you return it, we take over when it gets to our shipping dock, not before. You break it, you agree to pay us for the damage. If you're smart, you'll get insurance for the beast.
• TERM. Our agreement starts when we deliver a computer to you. The agreement ends when you either send the box back to us, or you buy it from us. At any time, we can ask you to send the computer back to us, and you agree to do so without whining. (We're not including any ipso facto clauses here, telling you we want the stuff back if you file for bankruptcy, because they're pretty much unenforceable. Just do the right thing, ok?)
• OPTION TO PURCHASE. If you like the box, you can buy it. We'll agree on a price, using the standard Sun price list for your country and your company's discount bracket. If, for whatever reason, you don't send the gear back to us after 60 days, we're going to bill you for it anyway, so let us know if you want to keep it.
• WARRANTIES and LIABILITIES. None. Zilch. Zip. Nada. Bupkis. We're loaning you a computer so you can play with it. Figure out what it can do for you, and call us in a few weeks to let us know how we can help.

Yes, counsel might well have a heart attack, but it'd be fun to watch. Sell tickets. And, if the worst case is you lose some hardware around the edges, you're still far ahead of the game.

Posted by Rick Levine on February 23, 2006 at 01:49 PM PST #

Very interesting program, and certainly shows a great amount of confidence in the product. I have a question regarding to eligibility for the trial however. I am a high school student, with primary interests in mathematics and computer science, in particular I have been experimenting with integer factorization as of late. I would greatly enjoy having a higher performance system to work with, even if only for a limited period of time as using a personal computer with very limited threading limits what can be done. However, I would feel rather guilty applying as I am obviously not the target demographic, and do not have the means to purchase the server. Would it be at all appropriate to apply? I would certainly be willing to benchmark performance and compare it to historical precedents on integer factorization and current things, however again it does not really appear to be inside your target demographic. Thanks,

Posted by Robb Carr on February 23, 2006 at 10:14 PM PST #

Robb Carr,

As a physics undergraduate I am thinking along the same line with my own little project, and was feeling rather cool - until I clicked on the link and read things through, that is.

But I suppose we aren't quite the people that they are trying to market to here, so I won't rant too much about that...

Posted by Alex Lam on February 24, 2006 at 11:31 AM PST #