Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!daemon From: tom@mims-iris.waterloo.edu (Tom Haapanen) Subject: Re: Flames on UNIX/OS/2/Microsoft Message-ID: <1991Feb8.142945.14944@watserv1.waterloo.edu> Sender: daemon@watserv1.waterloo.edu Organization: University of Waterloo, WATMIMS Research Group References: <451@nec-gw.nec.com> Distribution: na Date: Fri, 8 Feb 91 14:29:45 GMT Lines: 72 [ Note: I've tried to present a reasoned response to George Skillman's ] [ article. Please direct any flames to alt.flame, or to me by email; ] [ they're not needed in comp.os.os2.misc ] George Skillman writes: > [Unix vs OS/2 comparison deleted] > And now that I've bashed on UNIX, I want my chance to bash on the > money-grubbers that end up steering the course of the computer > industry more than we powerless engineers. Oh boy... > I think one thing we all agree on is ANYTHING IS BETTER THAN DOS! Look > what happened to the PC industry. Apple was doing just great with its > innovative machines using a decent microprocessor. In steps IBM [...] You call the 6502-equipped Apple II an "innovative machine using a decent microporcessor"? No? Then you must be getting confused by the 1981 launch of the PC, and the 1984 launch of the Mac. > In steps IBM (king of hype and the inverse price/performance ratio) > fumbling the ball for all mankind by picking the Intel 8088 with > *segmentation* and getting Microsoft to provide a *program loader* for > an operating system. It's one thing to botch a job when you're the first > with a new kind of product but quite another when you have an excellent > example like UNIX to follow. Unix wasn't really a reasonable example to consider at the time. Back then, it was still a minicomputer operating system which certainly couldn't be made to run on a 16K IBM PC with floppies (remember, the original PC did not support a hard disk). [I can hardly believe that I'm actually justifying the existence of DOS... :)] > Now, all three have a chance to atone for their sins. Intel has introduced > a decent chip, the 80386, and IBM/Microsoft have introduced a *real* > operating system, OS/2. So who's stinking up the works? Microsoft! Here is where you go completely off track. Microsoft has been offering OS/2 for, what, about three years now, with steadily improving versions (1.0, 1.1 and 1.2). However, there have been few major applications written, and the market has responded by not buying OS/2. On the other hand, when Windows 3.0 was introduced in May (with much hoopla, yes, but no more than at the OS/2 intro back in '87), hordes of developers and users rushed to Windows. How can you say that it's Microsoft that's making us use Windows instead of OS/2? We certainly have a choice as consumers. Microsoft is, like most succesful companies, a market driven company. > [Anti-Microsoft flames deleted] > For reasons that have nothing to do with technical merit, you're > the ones who will probably decide what PCs will be like in the next ten > years for the whole damn world! If you won't/can't do a good job at it, > let someone else. After all, even IBM at least tried to do that! Microsoft originally wanted to create OS/2 using the Windows API, but IBM refused, as they basically wanted to go proprietary. Think about that --- what if all those Windows applications out there could just be recompiled to run on OS/2? Might not OS/2 have been more succesful? Microsoft has not abandoned OS/2, and they are working on OS/2 3.0. I can see it becoming a success, as it will run on a variety of platforms, and provide Microsoft's original vision of a Windows API (alongside the PM API), thus allowing thousands of Windows applications to run on OS/2 natively. In conclusion, don't flame Microsoft for doing Windows 3.0; flame all the millions of users out there who are buying Windows instead of OS/2. And maybe even give some thought to *WHY* they are still using DOS and Windows instead of switching to OS/2. [ \tom haapanen --- university of waterloo --- tom@mims-iris.waterloo.edu ] [ comp.binaries.os2 moderator --- comp.windows.ms.* faq list maintainer ] [ "i don't even know what street canada is on" -- al capone ]