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From: esg@sodium.ATT.COM (Edward Gokhman)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: OPEN LOOK announced first (was: Re: Motif/Openlook, is there a trend?
Message-ID: <3005@sodium.ATT.COM>
Date: 11 Feb 91 14:46:10 GMT
References: <823@sdrc.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Lincroft, NJ
Lines: 42

From article <823@sdrc.UUCP>, by wggabb@sdrc.UUCP (Rob Gabbard):
> From article <2995@sodium.ATT.COM>, by esg@sodium.ATT.COM (Edward Gokhman):
> 
>> it all depends on what hat you are wearing. If you are
>> an independent software vendor you most likely to hook up with
>> the wood behind the Sun's arrow - SPARC/SVR4/OpenWindow platform. The
>> market share is a magic magnet in software business.
> 
> Yes it is - and though Sun has more market share than any other single vendor,
> add up the market shares held by HP, DEC and IBM and compare them to Sun.
All I have in front of me is the estimate for 1990 number of 
workstation shipments made around the September 1990 by Goldman Sachs.
	Sun - 170,000
	Digital - 15,000
	HP - 75,000
	IBM - 15,000
Sun ships over 60% more then DEC,IBM, and HP together: 170,000
vs 105,000. I assume this estimate reflects what is going on
right now.


> If an ISV is going to make his wares available on a variety of platforms, 
> following the OSF/Motif path make the most sense.

In view of the above it is not as clear and facts show that ISVs
develope for OL approx 3 times more then for Motif, according
to >Personal Workstation< magazine monthly surveys.

> Also, if doing 3D graphics,
> Sun has yet to integrate SunPHIGS with X. XGL is immediate mode only (no
> display list) which makes it very unattractive for a large number of 3D 
> applications. The other vendors mentioned have integrated their 3D graphics 
> packages with X. I'm sure Sun will eventually have this capability (considering
> that they were the PEX SI implementors) but it is currently an advantage the 
> other's have, and a big reason alot of people are still running SunView rather 
> than switching to OpenWindows.
> 

I agree with all of that, but it looks that time is on Sun's side
right now.

--Ed Gokhman