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From: twagner@baobab.berkeley.edu (Tim Wagner)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms,comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: Query:  Which would you recommend?  Windows?  or OS2 w/ PM?
Message-ID: <27980@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 19 Sep 90 18:28:05 GMT
References: <4227@rex.cs.tulane.edu>
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: twagner@baobab.berkeley.edu (Tim Wagner)
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John Keating writes:In article <4227@rex.cs.tulane.edu>,
keating@rex.cs.tulane.edu (John W. Keating) writes:
|> Here's a question for the net:
|> 
|> I was looking through some magazines lately and came up with these (rounded,
|> from memory) figures:
|> 
|> OS2 SE/PM:  $295        Windows:        $129
|> 			MS-DOS:         $ 65
|> 	    ----                        ----
|> 	    $295                        $194
|> 
|> A difference of only $101.  For an operating system that leaps as far ahead
|> of MSDOS as OS2 does, and for a better integrated GUI, that seems an awful
|> small price to pay.
|> 
|> This brings up a few questions in my mind.  Why would anyone buy Windows
|> when such a better alternative is available for a comparative price?
|> 
|> Also, why doesn't Microsoft try to push OS2 more?  I can see how they would
|> be afraid to at this time, considering how Windows 3.0 has taken off, but
|> why didn't they before?  And will they in the future?
|> 
|> Disclaimer:  I have used both OS2 and Windows 3.0, and they are both (in my
|> 	     eyes) good products.  I am not Windows bashing here.

People I have spoken to suspect that MS is waiting for version 2.0, and
possibly another hardware base before really marketing OS/2 with a vengeance.
The 1.x versions thus playing a sort of "extended beta-test" role in their
mind (though probably not in IBM's).  Also, they seem to have an evolutionary
goal for current DOS/Windows users, rather than a throw-away strategy.

Speaking of which, net-readers, does anyone know whether 2.0 has been
officially announced/released?

Tim Wagner
UC Berkeley
twagner@sequoia.Berkeley.EDU
Programming Environments Research Group
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