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| Date: | Fri, 11 Sep 1998 16:18:18 EST |
| From: | SBT Information Systems <sbtaus@ibm.net > |
| Reply-To: | |
| To: | 32bits@sbt.net.au |
| Subject: | OS/2 News, Views and PRs SE: Past, Present & the Future of OS/2 |
OS/2 News, Views and PRs SE October 1997
we're now certified Y2K compliant !!!
=======================================================================
Welcome to OS/2 News, Views & PRs Special Edition:
OS/2 Past, Present and Future.
Material below is protected under copyright, and reproduced here for the
benefit of subscribers of "OS/2 News, Views & PRs" by permission of
copyright holder, please refer to notices below. The original articles
appear at:
http://www.stardock.com
===========================================================================
OS/2 Past, Present and Future.
By Brad Wardell President Stardock Systems, Inc.
Copyright notice This material is protected under international copyright.
If you wish to reprint this article in part or in full, please contact
bwardell@stardock.com for permission. You may also visit
http://www.stardock.com to see this article and related articles.
Disclaimer: I work for an OS/2 software company called Stardock Systems,
Inc. We develop and publish 32bit OS/2 software for both corporate OS/2
sites as well as individual OS/2 users. Our products range from complete
desktop environments for securing and standardizing corporate desktops
(Object Desktop Professional), to utilities to allow corporations and
"power users" to recover from system hangs (Process Commander) to consumer
entertainment products such as Galactic Civilizations, Trials of Battle,
and most recently Links OS/2.
Part I: OS/2 Past
OS/2's fate was largely decided in mid 1991 when IBM made the decision that
OS/2 2.0 would have the Workplace shell as well as "Seamless" windows. This
decision ensured that OS/2 2.0 would not make it out by summer of 1991 or
even the once definitive date of December 31, 1991. The reason this is
important is because in April of 1992, Microsoft shipped Windows 3.1 and
closed the door on OS/2's chances of replacing DOS/Windows as the general
OS for the world.
Of course, it's easy to say that now. Who would have thought that back
then. Windows 3.0 was barely being preloaded and it was too unstable as a
corporate client to worry too much about.
But it was largely the workplace shell that delayed OS/2 and in hindsight
it would have been better to release it for an OS/2 version 3 in 1993 and
had kept the cruddy old Program manager type setup that was in OS/2 1.3.
Because had IBM done that, OS/2 would have looked and felt like Windows 3.0
did except it would multitask, not crash, and run true 32bit software, and
run existing Windows programs and it would likely have been out in 1991,
nearly a year before Windows 3.1 was out.
Picture that. OS/2 2.0 could have come out as a 32bit, multithreaded OS
that ran DOS (better than DOS), Windows and new OS/2 software. Was stable,
worked great on networks, and had good performance. The only competition
was the buggy Windows 3.0 which ran on top of DOS. The only thing different
in this scenario than the OS/2 2.0 we actually had is this didn't have the
WPS and came out 9 months earlier ¹ before Windows 3.1 vapor could cloud
the scene.
But as history wrote, OS/2 2.0 was theoretically released on March 31, 1992
(though most OS/2 buffs know that it really wasn't generally available
until June).
By then, Windows 3.1 was out and was fairly fast and much more stable.
Still not as stable as OS/2 was but any early user of OS/2 2.0 could tell
you that the workplace shell of OS/2 2.0 was pretty flaky. Black icons,
trap errors (i.e. the register dump kind), and of course everyone was using
VGA and no sound whereas Windows 3.1 looked pretty, had SVGA support, and
had some sound at least.
In the Fall of 1992, IBM made available the Service Pack for OS/2 2.0 and
for some, a beta of Windows 3.1 (WinOS2 3.1) which made life much better
for OS/2 2.0 users. By June of 1993, OS/2 2.1 was released which as its
point upgrade name would imply, largely addressed the problems of OS/2 2.0.
It was with the release of OS/2 2.1 and the availability of MMPM/2 (the
multimedia stuff for OS/2) that I began writing OS/2's first major
commercial game (I say major because there were commercial black jack
programs and such that came before Galactic Civilizations). The amount of
attention that Galactic Civilizations received as a beta surprised most
people including IBM. Suddenly, lights went on at IBM and the belief grew
that OS/2 could be made into a general consumer platform.
In hindsight, this was probably a mistake since IBM wasn't prepared to do
what it really took to be a good consumer product not to mention the
consumer market isn't nearly as profitable per capita as the corporate
product. A typical example of this is the Usenet Newsgroups. Lots of end
user OS/2 users hang out there but most OS/2 ISVs make their money from
corporate site licensing and service agreements. If every OS/2 user in the
Usenet suddenly changed OS's tomorrow, it probably wouldn't affect OS/2
ISVs noticably (except most of their tech support calls would disappear).
That's not to say that end users on Usenet aren't important, it's just that
end users, as a general rule of thumb don't generate as much profit as a
single IS manager who buys $50,000 in units and might make a couple tech
support calls per quarter. Obviously end users matter to shareware authors
and companies that produce entertainment software (nearly 15% of Stardock's
revenue comes from its entertainment division). But back in 1993 or so,
OS/2 as a mainstream consumer platform looked like a good idea. I sure
thought it was but who knew how difficult it would be for IBM to try to
create the infrastructure necessary to deal with massive numbers of end
users.
But IBM dove into the consumer market head first and the result was OS/2
Warp 3. As with every release, IBM made a deadline and stuck to it
regardless of the consequences. IBM's not the only one's to run into that
sort of problem ¹ giving into public pressure to meet a specific date and
then releasing something that they thought was ready but probably needed
just a couple more weeks of testing. The lack of Winbios support, and a
config.bak problem tarnished an otherwise wonderful product.
Warp 3 went out and get nailed because of installation problems.
Coincidentally, of course, in October of 1994 (when Warp 3 was officially
released) Microsoft released the big "Chicago" beta which became Windows 95
later on. The press, which seems to generally prefer to talk about vapor
than substance essentially reprinted Microsoft's Chicago reviewer's guide
(while OS/2 users complained that the guide was in Word 6 format which had
just come out too). OS/2 Warp 3 ended up being compared to the unreleased
Chicago (i.e. what Chicago would be when it came out which changed from day
to day).
By embracing the end user market, IBM created the biggest technical support
nightmare that the IBM company may have ever seen. The #1 tech support
report for OS/2 Warp 3 was not how to get TCP/IP stacks going or how to
link Novell up with OS/2 clients, or how to make sure DB/2 would work on
the new version. No, it was "How do you get DOOM 2 to run on OS/2 with
sound?" IBM has a highly paid, highly trained technical support staff that
was meant to deal with Fortune 500 companies who had paid millions of
dollars for software and hardware from IBM. They weren't prepared to have
to deal with a bunch of people trying to run video games and the support
costs from this really hurt PSP at the time. This probably has a lot to do
with why PSP today goes out of its way to discourage "kitchentop" users
because they don't want to support every new user that wants to play some
video game on OS/2.
So IBM ends up having tens of thousands of phone calls pouring in over
trivial issues while the product sells at the local CompUSA for $89.95 with
a good $30 of it going to third parties (mostly Microsoft) in royalties and
another $10 in manufacturing costs. With Warp 3, IBM did the good fight and
basically went at it by not trying to make a profit on it but to get market
share. Critics of IBM always say that IBM didn't try hard enough but with
OS/2 Warp 3. They did and they were having good success for awhile. IBM's
marketing program was ineptly done to quite an extent (and indeed in a
Winter 1996 meeting with IBM's ad agency I questioned them about what the
heck they were thinking in those terrible TV ads). But OS/2 was indeed
taking off and certainly making Microsoft nervous. In the Winter of 1995,
Bill Gates is said to have remarked in frustration, "How can we compete
with something that seems to have unlimited funds thrown at it?" (This was
reprinted in the trade magazines from the time). It was IBM's next move
though that got PSP and OS/2 into serious trouble: OS/2 for the PowerPC.
Around this time IBM was getting pretty giddy, while Windows 95 wasn't out
yet, IBM was spending huge amounts of money on marketing and courting
partners. An IBM business partner can gauge how important they are to IBM
by the number of duffle bags they get in a given year. 1994/1995 was a big
duffle bag year if you were an OS/2 ISV or partner. It really looked,
despite a few bumps in its initial release, that OS/2 Warp could capture a
good 15% to 20% of the general OS market. IBM was courting hardware vendors
as well as software vendors to work with IBM. We'll talk about how many of
these "partners" blatantly took advantage of IBM's good faith later.
The PowerPC version was also born of this vision of seeing OS/2 finally
taking off and trying to expand on that success. Confident that any
technical issue could be surmounted, they believed that Workplace OS (as
Power OS/2 was called in those days) would run several OS's at the same
time. Many people, even at the time, thought IBM might be jumping the gun a
bit. OS/2's success on Intel wasn't exactly cemented yet even though things
were looking up. Nevertheless, IBM worked on the PowerPC version of OS/2
for a couple of years with high amounts of resources really starting to
pour in right after the Warp launch so that Fall Comdex 1994 you could
already see OS/2 apps such as Desktop Observatory and Sundial's Relish
running on the PowerPC version of OS/2 (as long as you didn't move the
mouse). Unfortunately, popular rumor doesn't make fact and the rumor ¹ that
still exists today that the x86 chipset is at the end of its design limits
was and continues to be simply not true (any computer engineer can tell you
that any chipset can essentially be extended forever if you have enough
money which Intel does). Someone with power at IBM convinced the powers
that be that Intel couldn't really boost the speed of the x86 process line
much more than where the 486 was already. The mediocre performance of the
Pentium 60 made the case stronger. So IBM believed that they could create a
processor for PC's that was several times faster than the Intel chips and
do so very cheaply.
When this failed to happen, not only did he PowerPC not take off as a new
platform (other than Macs which weren't competing with 680x0 chips at this
point), it made OS/2 for the PowerPC useless. Years of work and energy had
poured and subsequently wasted on OS/2 for the PowePC. The final version of
it (which does exist) doesn't even have networking. This sort of thing
tends to really take the wind out of one's sails.
Not only did it take the wind out of many in PSP, but it angered the other
parts of IBM which lost their faith in PSP to deliver product in a timely
fashion. It is my belief that the failure of OS/2 for the PowerPC to be
delivered on time helped spell the doom of PSP getting funding from Lou
Gerstner. In his mind, I believe, PSP had blown their chance. PSP got
isolated from the rest of IBM to a degree because of this (in my opinion of
course).
Even worse, projects are usually comprised of a handful of truly critical
people. For example, OS/2 SMP was largely done by a single person who later
left which is (so I hear) one of the reasons why it took so long for OS/2
SMP to get updated (this is rumor keep in mind). So imagine yourself in
their shoes, you just spent 1 maybe 2 years working on the biggest greatest
project of all time to have it be for nothing. This was a scenario that
would repeat itself later with OpenDoc. What ends up happening is that many
truly talented people end up leaving. IBM lost a lot of key developers
because of this kind of frustration. The mega-team that delivered miracles
in the form of OS/2 2.0 to OS/2 3.0 began to dwindle.
OS/2 for the PowerPC's doom was half PSP's fault for not getting it out on
time and half the PowerPC chip's group's fault for not delivering on the
promise of next generation performance.
When Windows 95 came out, it came up against OS/2 3.0 that was pretty much
unchanged. Much of the developer resources at IBM that could have been
putting new features into OS/2 had been working on PowerPC for OS/2.
Instead of using money to get more third party support on OS/2 Intel,
monetary resources for third parties were spent encouraging ISVs to write
to the PowerPC, trade shows, etc.
Again, all this is in hindsight and at the time, most of the decisions made
some sense. But when Windows 95 came out, contrary to popular belief in the
OS/2 camp, it was not a bug-ridden, unstable piece of junk. It did the job
and did it decently well for lots of people. Not nearly as good as OS/2 but
Microsoft, the master of putting the carrot in front of the mule said
"Win95 not stable enough? Not enough multitasking? No problem, just wait
for NT 4.0 which will have that and run Win95 softwareË"
The answer from IBM was OS/2 Warp 4 which we'll talk about in part 2: OS/2
Present!
===========================================================================
OS/2 Past, Present, Future
(part 2) Bradley Wardell Stardock Systems, Inc.
Copyright notice This material is protected under international copyright.
If you wish to reprint this article in part or in full, please contact
bwardell@stardock.com for permission. You may also visit
http://www.stardock.com to see this article and related articles.
Disclaimer: I work for an OS/2 software company called Stardock Systems,
Inc. We develop and publish 32bit OS/2 software for both corporate OS/2
sites as well as individual OS/2 users. Our products range from complete
desktop environments for securing and standardizing corporate desktops
(Object Desktop Professional), to utilities to allow corporations and
"power users" to recover from system hangs (Process Commander) to consumer
entertainment products such as Galactic Civilizations, Trials of Battle,
and most recently Links OS/2.
Terminology PSP stands for Personal Systems Products, a division of IBM..
Chicago stands for the codename given to Windows 95. All these articles
involve the client side of OS/2. Part II: OS/2 Present
A final look back After the first article became widely read I received a
lot of email from people who had lived through the OS/2 2.0 to OS/2 3.0
days. I thought IÊd add a little more about the past to give further
background into this article.
The email I received confirmed the rumor that OS/2 2.11 SMP was largely the
work of 1 person who later left IBM. Once that person left and IBM had
gotten rid of most of the contractors at Boca Raton Fl (IBM decided to
centralized PSP in Austin) the brain drain was so much that OS/2 would
never get a client SMP version again. OS/2Ês kernal on a P-66 took 2 hours
to compile. OS/2 took about 40 minutes to compile on a 2 processor OS/2
2.11 SMP machine (4 P-66Ês). IBM would not allow OS/2 internal builds to
use the SMP compile. If each compile ate up over 2 hours, imagine how much
better OS/2 Warp could have been if the engineers had had an extra hour and
80 minutes after each build to spend testing, fixing, adding, etc.? The
fact that OS/2 had an SMP version so early could have made a huge
difference the high end market. Unfortunately, IBM failed to capitalize on
this and eventually Windows NT (which still canÊt match OS/2 2.11Ês SMP
scalability) took over as the primary SMP client. By the time IBM got
around to showing how cool OS/2 SMP was, it was too late.
Background on OS/2 Warp 4 A lot of the email I received focused on IBMÊs
inability to market OS/2. IBM did try very hard to market OS/2, they just
couldnÊt figure out how to effectively market it to all their market
segments at once. IBM spent the bucks, it just didnÊt spend them
effectively.
IBM also treated OS/2 ISVs very well. Stardock benefited greatly from IBMÊs
encouragement and helped our growing little company learn the ropes of
doing pre-loads, site licensing, demonstrating, and yes, marketing. IBM UK
and IBM Germany did a heck of a lot to help Stardock especially. People ask
why we stick with OS/2 and one of the reasons is that IBMÊs terrific
treatment of us during this time period earned our long term loyalty.
Unfortunately, the people who made all this happen at IBM are mostly gone
now.
At a particular IBM meeting in the Fall of 1995, one of the executives at
O&M (IBMÊs advertising agency) presented IBMÊs next stage marketing
campaign (The infamous Nuns ads and other solutions for a small planet
ads). Once he asked if there were any questions I quickly raised my handË
Now before I tell you what my question was, I want to make clear that up to
this point I had never Âburned¼ any bridges with anyone at IBM. My question
though quickly set flame to one of my bridges with PSPË
In front of some of IBMÊs top customers, I asked ÂThose Warp 3 ads with the
surfer peopleËwhat exactly were you thinking?¼ The O&M guy responded ÂWe
wanted to show that OS/2 was hip and cool to use.¼ I said, ÂWell, who
exactly are you targeting? Are you trying to imply to the 15 year old
market segment that if they use ÁWarpÊ that theyÊll get beat up less at
school? You could have shown how OS/2 was a good and beautiful OS that
increases productivity but instead wasted the advertising campaign
promoting OS/2 as something you use after surfing!¼ At that point, the IBM
customers laughed and then applauded for they felt the same way. I knew my
question would stir trouble but after seeing all the posts and meeting all
the OS/2 users who were frustrated at how poorly the USA Warp 3 marketing
campaign was launched, how could I not seize the opportunity to bring this
up to the specific people responsible for those horrible ads? It turned out
that the presenter was one of the actual people who came up with them.
Ironically, my question helped cement the Stardock/Vobis pre-load agreement
since they felt the way I did. It should be noted that we are talking about
the USA OS/2 ads. The European ads were quite good.
Comdex 95, the end of the world. It was by Comdex 95 that Lou Gerstner had
told PSP that OS/2 Warp for the PowerPC had to be done. IBM PSP failed. IBM
had invited Stardock to demonstrate in the PowerPC tent that year but we
declined since we knew of this rumor and knew that Power OS/2 (as I liked
to call it) would no way be done by then.
One of the things that made OS/2 relatively successful was that within IBM
there were contingents of OS/2 advocates. People who lived, breathed, and
slept OS/2. I wonÊt name names here but in Austin, in the United Kingdom,
in Germany, in Denmark, and speckled elsewhere were people who made things
happen for OS/2 even though they didnÊt have executive level positions.
Because of them, they were able to get things to happen that would
otherwise not have. It was, for example, an IBM contractor in Boca Raton
who Âdiscovered¼ Stardock, got IBM to port DOOM (well before Microsoft had
thought of it), got video tools put into OS/2, etc. Most of IBM is pretty
indifferent to the world. Many IBMers think of their jobs as the thing they
do between weekends. So when you get the IBMer that is an advocate of
something (like OS/2) he or she can have great impact.
I mention this because at Comdex 95 two things became clear. #1 Because
Power OS/2 failed to meet its deadline, PSP was doomed from a budget point
of view. And #2 Microsoft, ever paranoid of PSP, had spared no expense in
promoting Windows 95 (and hinting that NT 4 would solve any remaining
problems Win95 didnÊt solve). As a result, many of these advocates saw the
light at the end of the tunnel as the freight train of the Microsoft
marketing machine. These IBMer OS/2 advocates had hoped to make OS/2 the
dominate platform. But Comdex 95 made it clear that OS/2 would be, at best,
a niche. Thus began the great exodus of IBMer OS/2 advocates to either
different parts (i.e. NON-PSP) of IBM or out of IBM entirely. Even David
Barnes eventually went to Lotus (even though he still loves OS/2).
Taking Stock of the SituationË ItÊs January 1996 and IBM has to assess the
situation. PSP is to be trimmed drastically, largely due to its handling of
PowerPC OS/2. The Warp 3 campaign was expensive and many of the Â13
million¼ OS/2 users left OS/2 as quickly as they came (I could write an
entire article on how ridiculous the claim is that there are Á13+ million
OS/2 usersÊ is). The IBMer OS/2 advocates were largely gone. And to add
insult to injury many of IBMÊs OS/2 ÂBusiness partners¼ not only didnÊt
produce anything but blatantly ripped IBM off.
The long time OS/2 ISVs, which, unlike the DOS/Windows ISVs who had
received millions of dollars to bring their products to OS/2, had not
gotten any money and subsequently had not noticeably grown (except mainly
for Stardock which had moved into the lucrative desktop management and
utility market). In short, IBM spent millions on DOS/Windows ISVs in an
effort to get them over on OS/2 and these ISVs largely took IBM to the
cleaners. But IBM largely ignored OS/2-specific ISVs and thus they remained
small <10 person shops in general. Some people always give the suggestion
that IBM should pay Windows ISVs to port to OS/2 ¹ IBM tried that and got
the short end of the stick.
But the fatal flaw (in hindsight) in the strategy is that IBM could have
spent the money to help the OS/2 ISVs become big companies that would have
been loyal and been able to produce ÂClass A¼ products instead of paying
big companies to port their class A products to OS/2.
Again, even though to the average OS/2 user it may not seem like a big
deal, OS/2 for the PowerPC is what did the most damage to OS/2 --in terms
of wasted developer energy and in making the rest of IBM lose faith in IBM
PSP (which in turn vastly cut PSPÊs budget). It wasnÊt Microsoft that hurt
OS/2 the most, it was OS/2 for the PowerPC.
So IBMÊs options in January of 1996 were pretty limited. They had blown
much of their third party support money trying to get various (unnamed
here) Windows ISVs onto OS/2. Those companies largely took the money and
never delivered anything. Since IBM was slow to enforce their agreements
(and the agreements were structured in a half now, half later payment
schedule) and now (1997) PSP doesnÊt have the money to pay the other half
so they just terminated all the outstanding agreements.
So now they didnÊt have any money to help mature the existing OS/2 ISVs.
Most of the people who had worked on the core parts of OS/2 were
contractors who were long gone (back in Boca Raton) so Warp 4 couldnÊt have
too many fundamental changes to it. The marketing campaign would be very
small due to budget cuts. What were they going to do?
In February of 1996 I flew to Austin at the request of PSP. At this point,
StardockÊs market share in the OS/2 market made us the clear leader in
independent native OS/2 software. Since we were continuing to release more
and more OS/2 products, IBM was interested in what Stardock thought about
OS/2 Warp 4. At this point, JAVA wasnÊt even on IBMÊs radar screen (yes, I
realize that seems hard to believe but it wasnÊt until Spring that JAVA
really came into the scene). Warp 4 was going to add in OpenDoc, Coaches
(which is where a big chunk of development money went), an updated UI,
Smartcenter (later called WarpCenter), a system object similar to Windows
95Ês, and a number of other features that had been hanging around PSP and
other divisions of IBM but hadnÊt made it in before because of IBMÊs
rigorous testing methodology (which any IBMer could write books about).
At that meeting it became pretty clear that the development resources at
IBM had disintegrated since the glory days of OS/2 2.11 and 3.0. Basically,
PSP no longer had enough developers who were familiar with the core code of
OS/2 (much of OS/2 is still written in assembly). This meant no dynamic
caching, no multiple message queues (though one heroic PSP developer did
much to work around the problem which is in Warp 4 and FP 17 or later), and
no major changes to SOM and such. When asked, with these issues in mind,
what I thought many users would like to see in Warp 4 I said (in this
order): Make WinOS2 look like OS/2. Modify the file dialog to see long file
names on FAT. Add TrueType support. Simplify the desktop (i.e. fewer
objects on the desktop, sort programs by their type ¹ applications,
utilities, etc. instead of Windows apps, OS/2 apps, DOS apps, etc.). And
make the networking more intuitive. While some of the suggestions went in
(true type, simpler desktop, and more intuitive networking) the biggest
suggestions were left out. Stardock had planned on putting in an enhanced
file dialog into Object Desktop 1.5 but chose not to in hopes IBM would do
it. The same is true for making Windows programs look like OS/2 programs.
These two things alone would have made OS/2 much nicer to work in. The True
Type support was done very poorly, giving OS/2 fonts a very ugly look.
JAVA? Cool, who needs OS/2 ISVs? Now, sometime in the Spring of 1996, a
new mood began to perpetuate about the upper levels of IBM. That mood was,
ÂweÊre going to JAVA, we donÊt really need our existing OS/2 ISVs so weÊll
not worry about what we do that might hurt them.¼
Examples of this included screen shots of ÂMerlin¼ from IBM which were
nothing more than Warp 3 with a modified PMMerge.DLL, Object Desktop
installed, and NPS installed. This created the impression that OS/2 Warp 4
(Merlin) would make Object Desktop obsolete. This devastated our sales at
the time ¹ a time when Stardock was co-sponsoring the IBM technical
interchange with IBM and Lotus. But it wasnÊt just Stardock that IBM
stepped on. IBM implied strongly that Merlin would come with a full blown
tape backup package which hurt ISVs like CDS and MSR. And, IBM went on to
imply that Merlin would come with security features which likely had
effects on Pinnacle (the leader in high security OS/2 software) as well as,
again, Stardock which was previewing Object Desktop Professional which
secures OS/2 desktops. So until Merlin actually shipped, we had to battle
the erroneous perception that Merlin would have many features that competed
with Object Desktop.
IBM also decided to publicly tell users that OS/2 should not be used for
playing games. This statement, only a few months after IBM aggressively
lobbied ISVs to bring games to OS/2, had devastating effects. For example,
when IBM positioned OS/2 as a game platform, people quit their jobs to
start companies dedicated to writing for OS/2. Excellent games such as
Trials of Battle, from Shadowsoft, Bug Eyed Monsters from Grinning Lizard,
and others sold less than 1/40th of what Galactic Civilizations II had
sold. Sales from these games wouldnÊt even pay the salary of a single
developer to live on leaving some of these people with not just
disappointment but serious debts! IBM had nothing to gain by telling people
what OS/2 wasnÊt but they did so anyway.
So by summer of 1996, it seemed like aliens had taken control of once
benevolent powers at PSP. At this point, the well respected columnist Wil
Zachmann began to notice the aforementioned budget cuts PSP had suffered
(whether he realized this was due primarily to the PowerPC debacle and not
just Microsoft I donÊt know). Unfortunately, he concluded that these budget
cuts meant IBM was essentially abandoning OS/2 and publicly announced this.
IBM hadnÊt abandoned OS/2, they had merely given up on trying to take over
the entire OS market. Make no mistake, IBM had wanted to make OS/2 THE
general purpose PC OS. But by mid 1996, IBM was positioning OS/2 as a niche
OS. They hadnÊt yet figured out where it would fit but JAVA was looking
promising and they had the voice type stuff floating around that PSP had
managed to forcibly obtain from another IBM division.
Internal debating at IBM was between two warring parties: Either [A]
Position OS/2 as a high end OS where people would talk to their OS and do
poweruser type stuff with it or [B] Make OS/2 the ultimate JAVA client.
They were mutually exclusive goals but it wasnÊt until after Warp 4Ês
release that IBM decided on a course (choice B).
During the summer, IBM vigorously courted Netscape to bring their browser
to OS/2. IBM, having learned from previous experiences with Âbusiness
partners¼ assigned some of their best developers to work on sight at
Netscape to bring Navigator to OS/2.
The Warp 4 LaunchË If anyone doubted that IBM had pretty much given up on
its native OS/2 ISVs, a trip to the Warp 4 launch would bring them around.
Stardock and Pinnacle were the only long time OS/2 ISVs that had a booth at
the launch. Ironically, IBM didnÊt even seem concerned that Stardock had
actually released a product that integrated the userÊs desktop into the
Internet ¹ Object Desktop ProfessionalÊs object advisors (patent pending).
Stardock was there because of our workplace shell leadership and Pinnacle
was there because of their leadership in the security market.
IBM had never resolved what OS/2 Warp 4 was supposed to be for. It was the
JAVA client you could talk to that had a kind of working Win32 API
(open32). Problem was, JAVA on OS/2 was slow and implemented so poorly on
base Warp 4 to be useless. Voicetype was a niche that required a ton of
memory and was incompatible with many programs that used sound. And
Open32Ëwell, it had more issues than this article room for.
ThatÊs not to say that Warp 4 wasnÊt a good OS and a worthy upgrade ¹ it
is. But a successful product requires it to have a defined market, good
distribution, and be technically sound. Unfortunately, most OS/2 users even
now arenÊt sure who OS/2 Warp 4 is for.
Sales of OS/2 Warp 4, to put it mildly, did not live up to the glory days
of Warp 3. Many people just didnÊt know why they needed to upgrade. OS/2
Warp 3 with FP26 is pretty incredible. If Warp 4 simply brought a slower
version of JAVA and VoiceType why should people (especially corporations)
upgrade was the general consensus. Many of the sales came from an
unexpected source ¹ end users who, as this point, IBM wanted to go away.
So as 1997 began, OS/2 Warp 4Ês market share became clearly a niche. And it
became clear that regardless of what IBM said or did, OS/2 would remain the
choice of many Âpower users¼, consultants, and corporations. It also became
clear that, for the first time, OS/2 was getting a life of its own. That is
to say, IBM had provided this wonderful 32bit, multithreaded, objected
oriented OS and third parties and users had gotten together and begun to
actually take the reigns away from IBM. ÂThe OS/2 Marketplace¼ developerÊs
conference was created by the Phoenix OS/2 Society ¹ not IBM. In October
1997, an OS/2 trade show, created by OS/2 users called Warpstock arrived.
In short, it could be that 1997 was the year that the third party
proponents of OS/2 stopped riding IBMÊs coat tails and took action on their
own behalf. Actions that will expand its customer base in areas IBM
wouldnÊt expect, enhance the OS in ways IBM cannot, and define what market
segments OS/2 is for since IBM doesnÊt seem to be sure where OS/2 fits in.
This is an exciting time for OS/2 users and the OS/2 market. IBM created an
open architecture for OS/2 and has even retreated out of all the market
segments except for the high end client/server markets allowing others to
step in and fill the void. How they may fill that void weÊll talk about in
the next partË
OS/2Ês futureË(Next Month)
===========================================================================
OS/2 Past, Present, Future
Bradley Wardell Stardock Systems, Inc.
Copyright notice: This material is protected under international
copyright. If you wish to reprint this article in part or in full, please
contact bwardell@stardock.com for permission. You may also visit
http://www.stardock.com to see this article and related articles.
Disclaimer:
I work for an OS/2 software company called Stardock Systems, Inc. We
develop and publish 32bit OS/2 software for both corporate OS/2 sites as
well as individual OS/2 users. Our products range from complete desktop
environments for securing and standardizing corporate desktops (Object
Desktop Professional), to utilities to allow corporations and "power users"
to recover from system hangs (Process Commander) to consumer entertainment
products such as Galactic Civilizations, Trials of Battle, and most
recently Links OS/2.
Note: Parts I and II are available at http://www.stardock.com in the "news"
section.
Part III: OS/2 Future
Our Story So Far...
In the Summer of 1991, IBM made the decision to bring "The Workplace Shell"
that had been largely created for IBMÊs failed Office Vision project to
OS/2. It was and still is marvelous technology that allows people to work
the way they want to instead of the way the OS dictates. But doing so meant
a delay in the release of OS/2 from a Fall 1991 to a near third quarter
1992 general availability which gave Microsoft enough time to release
Windows 3.1 ¹ making OS/2Ês Windows support outdated and Microsoft the time
to build Windows 95/NT.
Even still, while that move may have ultimately prevented OS/2 from
achieving overwhelming dominance, OS/2 was on the path to being a major
niche (i.e. 20% of the PC market) platform when IBM PSP division (the one
that makes OS/2) got caught up in their early success and decided to jump
onto the PowerPC band wagon with both feet. After 2 years and millions of
dollars, the PowerPC didnÊt cut the mustard and Workplace OS (OS/2 for the
PowerPC) was a much tougher task to create than originally anticipated. As
a result, the entire thing got scrapped and OS/2 for Intel lost 2 years of
development and lost the faith of the executive management of IBM.
In the new reality, IBM created OS/2 Warp 4, a relatively modest upgrade
that was supposed to be both a JAVA business client as well as an OS that
you could literally talk to. Without enough budget thrown at either target,
it didnÊt succeed as either one and continued to be used as an industrial
strength client for Fortune 200 companies while the SOHO and consumer
market began to migrate to Windows 95 and NT 4.0 which unfortunately came
out around the same time as OS/2 Warp 4.
Because of IBMÊs considerable overhead, they canÊt really actively push
into a market unless they have overwhelming dominance. OS/2 was really the
first time that IBM had really invested to get into a market that already
had entrenched mature competitors.
So whatÊs OS/2Ês future?
As 1997 nears its end it seems like OS/2 is slowly being taken over by
third parties to greater and greater extents. Ultimately, the only thing
IBM really needs to do is provide device driver support and keep their foot
out of their mouth long enough for OS/2 to recover from IBMÊs mis-steps.
WeÊve already seen the beginning of this: Last winter, Esther Schindler, a
respected PC journalist, organized an OS/2 DeveloperÊs trade show in
Arizona. This Fall, the Felix Cruz inspired Warpstock trade show for end
users will be held in Southern California where most of the leading OS/2
vendors will also be to mingle with OS/2 consumers as well as corporate
buyers.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, we need to look hard at the reality
of OS/2...
ItÊs not dead but itÊs unconscious...
OS/2 users need to know where to set their demands and expectations. I
wonÊt pretend to speak for the other OS/2 ISVs but one thing unique about
the OS/2 market is that the ISVs get along very well. The different
software companies talk to each other on a regular basis. So let me put it
like this, right now, the OS/2 ISV (the companies that make OS/2 software)
are in a crisis. None but the smallest (i.e. people who write OS/2 software
part time) are going to survive long term as OS/2-only ISVs. They must go
cross-platform or into consulting or die. As it stands, thereÊs just not
enough revenue to be made making OS/2-only shrink wrapped products for a
company of significant size to thrive.
Let that sink in for a minute.
So what youÊre going to see is a lot more cross platform products and some
products that are not on OS/2 at all from traditionally OS/2-only
companies. ItÊs not a matter of getting "greedy" it is a matter of
survival. If OS/2 ISVs stay OS/2 only without finding some other source of
revenue they will go out of business ¹ period. And in this time of
transition, it will be particularly important that OS/2 users are
supportive of OS/2 ISVs that release cross platform products (and I donÊt
speak just of Stardock, as the months progress, youÊll see most of the OS/2
ISVs coming out with cross-platform products). So if you were planning to
buy or register that OS/2 application or utility, now would be a good time.
The first problem is that OS/2 ISVs face presently is the lack of channels
to announce products in. There is no print OS/2 publication in the United
States and in Europe there is only OS/2 Inside and little coverage
elsewhere. In July, Stardock released OS/2 Essentials Version 2, this is a
product that every OS/2 user should want to have. Unfortunately, how does
an OS/2 software company spread the word? The Internet can only reach so
far.
The second problem is that the OS/2 market isnÊt really growing anymore so
at some point youÊll saturate the market. As incredible as Object Desktop
is, at some point weÊll have sold it to everyone that is going to buy it.
How many people reading this donÊt already have Object Desktop? This means
that a clock is ticking to either expand your market or keep upgrading your
product in the hopes that you get nearly a 100% upgrade rate which is still
a diminishing return.
Many vocal OS/2 users on the Internet proudly proclaim that OS/2 software
has to compete for their buying dollars with DOS and Windows programs since
OS/2 can run them. This is true, but it works both ways, OS/2 users have to
compete for the development dollars of OS/2 ISVs with DOS/Windows and other
platforms too. So while OS/2 software companies have to make it worth the
OS/2 userÊs while to buy their software, the OS/2 ISVs need something in
return and right now (2nd half1997) itÊs not happening. The biggest reason
Stardock has remained relatively strong longer than other ISVs is because
we have continued to release new products (Links golf for OS/2 in May,
PMINews in June, OS/2 Essentials 2 in July, BUGS in August, Entrepreneur
this October). But obviously we canÊt and wonÊt be able to release a new
OS/2 product virtually every month especially when there are not enough
channels to spread the word on your product.
So what is going to happen and what can be done? Well, from years of
talking to thousands of OS/2 users in my travels IÊve come to notice the
different types of people that use OS/2 versus Windows versus Linux.
Windows users are largely end users that donÊt like to write software but
will happily buy commercial software if it is from a leading brand.
Linux users are techies that like to write freeware but donÊt like to buy
software but thereÊs always plenty of software because the user base is
always writing little freeware programs.
OS/2 users are largely end users that donÊt like to write software but also
donÊt like to buy software preferring to look for freeware DOS, Windows,
and sometimes OS/2 solutions to fill their needs.
Obviously these are generalisms and plenty of OS/2 users like to buy
software or there would be no commercial or shareware OS/2 software
vendors. But the silent majority of OS/2 users IÊve met use mostly Windows
3.1 programs, maybe a copy of Word 2.0 for Windows that they got from a
friend and a bunch of expired beta software / drivers theyÊve pulled from
BBSes and the Internet.
ItÊs not that OS/2 users are cheap, itÊs that they donÊt (as a general
rule) value their time to the point that theyÊre willing to pay for a
program that is ten times as good or efficient. Any time IÊve seen a post
complaining that Process CommanderÊs $69.95 price tag is too high I know
that the user doesnÊt value the time they spend having to reboot because of
a system hang or having to stand by and wait for OS/2 to shutdown to reboot
instead of letting it auto-reboot the machine for them.
But the same is true of Linux users as well but to a more extreme extent.
TheyÊll just go out and grab GNU C++ and program something that solves a
problem they have! But thereÊs not much commercial or shareware software
for Linux as a result.
But this is one of the problems that OS/2 users have to face for OS/2 to
have a viable future. TheyÊll need to either learn to develop their own
tools like Linux users or buy (or register) OS/2 products. Let me stress
that many OS/2 users do buy (or develop) their computing solutions, itÊs
just that the majority donÊt. An entire market of end users canÊt
realistically keep up to date if they entirely rely on freeware.
Many OS/2 users donÊt realize how much of a difference each user makes,
especially right now. Every sale won or lost in the OS/2 market makes a big
difference to the software vendor. To put it in perspective, if you sell 30
copies or more a month at Indelible Blue, youÊll be on the Top 10 best
seller's list. So imagine selling only a few dozen products per month and
having to pay employees, rent, inurance, phone, advertising, etc.? My fear
is that unless something happens, all the OS/2 ISVs that are more than a
couple of people will be essentially gone by the end of the year unless
theyÊre able to find some success in the Windows platform or migrate to
consulting or thereÊs some sort of increase in OS/2 user purchases.
One of my favorite users on the newsgroups has a tagline that says: "Why do
I use OS/2? Because I like the choice!" This is a great motto and one that
people who intend to stay with OS/2 should take to heart. A world without
OS/2 will be stifled from the PC OS point of view. When Microsoft had no
competition, DOS stagnated. What do you think theyÊll do if their last
major hurdle to monopoly is gone?
So next time youÊre manipulating a bunch of graphics files, before you go
and fool with a bunch of freeware programs, go and buy PMView which will
probably do the job twice as fast and much easier. Or next time youÊre
fooling with a freeware INI editor that may or may not fry your OS/2
system, check out UniMaint. And yes, next time you want an "OS/2
Equivalent" of Winzip (which is a $30 program on Windows), pick up Object
Desktop which, among many things, integrates ZIP files into the OS like a
folder.
My mantra on why I use OS/2 is this: "I use OS/2 because it makes me more
productive!" Time is money and if enough OS/2 users can come to value their
time more, more OS/2 software will be sold.
Why should companies develop for OS/2?
Some companies when they donÊt see enough sales on OS/2 begin to get the
grass is greener on the other side of the fence syndrome. Their theory is
that the Windows world is paved with gold and if they make a Windows
program itÊll make them millions of dollars. And if youÊve read this far,
you might get the mistaken impression that supporting OS/2 is a waste of
time ¹ not true!
The Windows market is bigger ¹ much bigger. But it has a lot more
competition. Describe didnÊt sell huge amounts of units for OS/2. But it
certainly sold a lot more than it would have if it had started out on
Windows. Many markets on Windows are closed at this point. Mesa/2 is a fine
spread sheet but it is unlikely in the Windows world that it would sell
more than a 1000 units. Again, that market is closed.
Imagine if Galactic Civilizations had been written for DOS instead of OS/2
back those years ago? How could a tiny company (back then) like Stardock
compete with the millions of dollars games get thrown at them in marketing?
Even today with a budget exceeding a million dollars, our next generation
strategy game, Entrepreneur (on OS/2 and Windows) has had to fight and
scrap to get preview coverage from the mainstream media. But because we
have an OS/2 version, we have an advantage both in terms of sales and in
terms of word of mouth over a Windows-only game. And word of mouth sells
more copies of a product than anything else. Users who get the Object
Desktop for Windows (beta) in a few weeks will have probably heard of it
because of the OS/2 version (which will also be enhanced in the future).
My point is that the Windows market is very crowded and Windows users like
to buy the #1 product in a given market segment. Being the second best
widget on Windows puts you in a very poor sales category.. This is where
OS/2 development comes into play. I saw Usenet post today that the demo
version of Entrepreneur had already made up to being one of the most
popular downloads on the Internet Top 40 demos. Anyone here doubt that the
amazingly fast climb up the charts is because of OS/2 users? By developing
for OS/2 as well as Windows, companies get the support of an enthusiastic
user base.
So to summarize to this point, OS/2 users need to value their time and be
aware that every purchase they make counts to OS/2 software vendors ¹
especially at this critical time. OS/2 software vendors need to be wary of
the myth of the streets of gold in the Windows world ¹ theyÊre not. Stay
with OS/2 at least as a cross platform choice.
The Future We Can Build
This next part will talk about things that are possible to do with OS/2
from a third party standpoint. DonÊt take these as product announcements
from any particular company. They are just ideas of things that I know
could realistically be done with OS/2.
The first thing that needs to be done is to rebuild the marketing channels
for OS/2. Os2.announce isnÊt sufficient as the primary "marketing" channel.
To reach OS/2 users we need to know where they are. We also have to have a
realistic idea of how many OS/2 users that can potentially buy products
there are. This means setting up a taskforce to eliminate the "14 million"
OS/2 user myth. Are there 300,000 active OS/2 users or 3,000,000? The
number is somewhere in between. We would also have to clearly define what
an active OS/2 user is. Someone using OS/2 to ring in sales as some
warehouse which has no third party software it probably not really an
active user since they just use it to type into a DB2 database all day. The
next step is to find out how active users hear about news. Are they all on
the Internet and if so, how regularly? How many of them read print
magazines?
One thing we, as a community, can do is to make sure that Internet News is
easy to come by. Much easier than it has been. Right now, once it scrolls
from the newsgroups, itÊs gone. And OS/2 e-Zine isnÊt really designed to be
a news center.
Recently, there has been a movement to create a thing called "Warpcast"
which will send news to you. This is a good start but not quite enough.
What we need is a free third party application that when run will go to a
central server and let users read about all the latest OS/2 news or a
website. A web browser link to a page controlled by a totally unbiased
third party that lists OS/2 related news events as the occur and it set up
in a searchable easy to use resource. Then, we get every single OS/2
freeware, shareware, and commercial vendor to link to the site and have
their program install with a link to this site so that everytime you get an
OS/2 product, you get a link to this site. Eventually, everyone that is
even remotely active in the OS/2 world would have access to the latest news
and events.
Of course, that only covers the on-line portion of the OS/2 market. How do
we reach the non-connected OS/2 user as well as the corporate types which
is where the "big" money is? Traditionally, Stardock has gone the route of
having an active sales force that calls known OS/2 customers.
Unfortunately, this is no longer an even remotely cost effective route to
take. What we need are print magazines that cover OS/2. Stardock Magazine
goes out to about 32,000 OS/2 readers every quarter but hopefully thatÊs
only a tiny fraction of the active OS/2 user population (you can subscribe
by emailing sdsmag@stardock.com). The solution? Get OS/2 Usergroups more
involved. Right now they are relatively isolated. What we need is a
world-wide OS/2 user group organization that keeps track of all the active
OS/2 user groups and their stats. Each OS/2 user group would try to find
out what companies or people in their areas use OS/2 and invite them to
join their user group. These user groups could also pool resources to try
to be at various trade shows to make sure OS/2 has some sort of presence
there outside whatever wacky strategy IBM has cooked up for that week.
People would then learn the relative strengths of OS/2.
Between these two mechanisms, the OS/2 community would have a way to
educate users about OS/2 and keep existing OS/2 users informed on the
latest happenings.
ItÊs the software, stupid!
OS/2 is going to need Windows 95 support. OS/2 will never get a native
Someone needs to provide this. I donÊt know who and I donÊt really care but
By the time you read this, Stardock will have probably announced that
For example, the Windows 98 desktop can actually be made up of web pages.
Another thing that would be nice to see is someone to be able to make
It should also be possible (though not easy) to hook into the file save
OS/2 also needs NTFS support. Someone has already posted that they could do
I could even see the day where there is a non-IBM upgrade to OS/2 created
What IÊm leading up here to folks is that we need to have an OS/2
Summaries
OS/2 is going through a very critical time right now (4th quarter 1997).
OS/2 users also need to be aware that time is money and not always look for
IBMÊs path for OS/2 is one of leveraging their position in Fortune 200
Therefore, OS/2 users and vendors need to work together to control their
A WarpCaster web page controlled by a non-interested third party that is
And finally, an organization that comes up with features and enhancements
OS/2 will never be the dominate OS. Windows 98 will be and eventually
I think by getting organized OS/2 can remain a viable OS and be in better
OS/2 has had a truly epic history and with any luck, its adventures are
===========================================================================
But I was talking with an old fireman yesterday, one Lex Davidson,
"OS/2 is just so much better and easier to use than Windows. It's the
What can I say, apart from maybe: "Blessed are the ignorant"
Warpstock -check the agenda!
Kevin, Rod and maybe Kingsley are going, if you can not make it, see the
Developer-Specific Seminars
1.Cross Platform Application Development ( presenter TBD )
2.OS/2 Timing Services - everything you wanted to know about how to use the
3.Introduction to REXX ( Bill Schindler ) - confirmed
4.REXX enablement of OS/2 applications - LET'S DO IT RIGHT!( Kim Cheung )
Every native OS/2 application can be a "killer ap" because with the proper
5.Advanced REXX ( Dick Goran ) - confirmed
6.NetREXX
7.Java programming in OS/2 ( Carlos de Luna Saenz )
Corporate/SOHO/Home User Seminars
Technical
1.OS/2: Past, Present, Future ( Brad Wardell, Stardock Systems,
2.Version-To-Version Migration ( TBD ) A one-hour "Version-To-Version
3.System Settings for Improved Performance ( David P. Both ) - confirmed
4.The latest from the field on OS/2 and hardware compatibility (Mike
6.Fundamental discussion on the concept of Objects in a
Usability
1.Stardock's OS/2 Solutions ( Brad Wardell, Stardock Systems, Inc. )
2.OS/2 Problem Determination ( TBD ) A one-hour general overview of all our
3.OS/2 Problem Determination II ( TBD ) An informal "birds of the
4.Expert Session on Photo>Graphics ( Terry Hamilton )
5.Netscape Communicator for OS/2 ( Mike Kaply )
6.Netscape Plugins (both Native and Win-OS/2) ( Dave Watson )
7.Administrating and Optimizing Warp Server 4 ( presenter TBD )
8.Warp v5 and Beyond by IBM ( presenter TBD )
9.Why they Warp: Companies who have chosen Warp as their solution (Mike
10.Installing OS/2 Workshop by Team OS/2
11.Upgrading from Windows NT to OS/2 ( Douglas C. Grove ) - confirmed
12.The Win32-OS/2 Project: Running Win32 apps under OS/2 ( by Timur Tabi )
13.Managing Your Warp Hard Drive Environment (PowerQuest) - confirmed This
14."The future of speech technology." (John J. Urbaniak, Ph.D., Aviar,
15.Think Tool Personal(TM) Database and Information Manager
21.SundialSystems - Rollin White
Connectivity
1.Internet Connection Server ( Virginia R. Hetrick )
3.BlueBird ( James Koerner from IBM ) - confirmed
4.Using Warp as an ISP, including a "how to" document that anyone could
5.Remote System
6."OS/2 Warp and the IBM Network Station: Perfect Together" ( Timothy
7.Networking with OS/2 ( Kevin Royalty ) - confirmed Home and SOHO
8.Connecting your LAN to the Internet ( Sharif Abdallah ) - confirmed
9.OS/2 Warp Server for SOHO use ( David P. Both ) - confirmed
10.Warp 4 vs NT 4 ( Douglas C. Grove ) -
11.Demo of OS/2's Internetworking capabilities (ftp, telnet, web, mail)
12.Get on the internet with Lotus Notes Domino and Warp 4 ( David P. Both )
13.Computer Telephony Integration on OS/2 ( Kim Cheung ) - confirmed Every
Come to this presentation to see what can be done in CTI. Come to see how
Community
1.OS/2 User Groups - Richard Woolsey / Esther Schindler
2.Panel discussion - "How OS/2 users can best interact with the computer
3.Selling OS/2 to the Home and SOHO Market by Tom Nadeau
====================================================================
If you would love to attend WarpStock, but cannot, CD-ROMS of the
Voytek Eymont
Return to [ 11 |
September |
1998 ]
CorelDraw caliber application nor will it ever get a top notch desktop
publishing package. And while many OS/2 users would stick their head in the
ground and say "Product
better than
certain types of apps that people need and OS/2 will never get them.
somehow, OS/2 must be able to run Win32 programs. Linux can do it, why
canÊt OS/2?
Object Desktop NT (For Windows 95/NT) is pretty far along (if youÊre
interested in being in the early experience program, visit
http://www.stardock.com, itÊll be $45 to join in but youÊll get access to 2
years up upgrades ¹ only first 5000 users will be allowed in). I mention
this because there are things coming up in NT and Win98 that are pretty
neat that can be done on OS/2.
That is, instead of having a wall paper you could have a website or a bunch
of websites positioned on different parts of your desktop to make your
system more productive (or much less depending on what you put on there). I
envision an Object Desktop future where we can embed applications and
websites directly into the OS/2 desktop. Running an IRC program? Make it
part of the desktop. How about an Active JAVA WarpCaster where the latest
OS/2 news is part of your desktop?
Windows programs look like OS/2 programs. It shouldnÊt be super hard to do.
Stardock has not jumped onto this because of potential support issues but
any serious Windows programmer should be able to figure out how to change
the controls to look like OS/2 ones.
message and intercept saved files to allow long file names on FAT where the
long file name is kept in the EA. Then, if someone could whip up a CLI
replacement that read the WPS EA names instead of the regular DOS file
names you would be able to read and write long file names on FAT.
one and they need to be given support. That doesnÊt mean it in the
traditional OS/2 user fashion: Flood them with promises to buy and then
refuse to when it comes out because it doesnÊt have some arbitrary unasked
for feature, tell them you would pay $50 or something for such a product
and let them put you on a list and when itÊs done, buy it!
by third parties and put into one shrink wrapped package that works as a
true upgrade path for traditional OS/2 users should IBM go the route of
stripping down OS/2 and making it some sort of weird JAVA client that will
run presentation manager programs, Win 3.1 programs, as well as JAVA
programs.
DeveloperÊs Network where end users and OS/2 software vendors combine
forces to come up with things that OS/2 needs to be an even greater OS and
then users would need to pledge to support the vendors that do that before
hand. There could be a web page run by an objective third party that is
connected to the WarpCaster idea I mentioned earlier that allows people to
discuss these things and then pledge to purchase these products if they
make them. If something got more than 1000 pledges then it would be listed
and OS/2 vendors (shareware, commercial, or even freeware) could go and
make such a thing.
The market is presently not able to support an OS/2-only ISV that has more
than a few employees and thus they must become cross platform to survive.
OS/2 users need to accept this and support this since if they go down,
there wonÊt be anymore shrink wrapped or large shareware software for OS/2.
the freeware solution unless it is the best one available. Every sale of an
OS/2 product counts and OS/2 products are amongst the highest in quality on
any market.
companies. They want to turn OS/2 into the niche OS that runs "a bunch of
stuff" in your workplace but mainly as a JAVA client. This is pretty
incompatible with the majority of active OS/2 users needs.
own future with OS/2. IBMÊs direction will ensure that they keep up with
driver support which is the only thing third parties cannot do.
linked to by every OS/2 ISV and has a link created with the installation of
every OS/2 program would help everyone. An international OS/2 user group
organization that works closely with OS/2 ISVs would help bring OS/2 to new
people as well as keeping those who arenÊt on the net regularly up to date
with the comings and goings of OS/2.
OS/2 needs to stay state of the art. This organization would then work with
the OS/2 ISVs to create these components after enough OS/2 users pledged to
support these endeavors. Eventually, if enough new features were created, a
third party upgrade to OS/2 could be made (like Power OS version 5 or
something) if IBM totally dropped the ball.
Windows NT will be after that. But I could see a strong OS/2 market again
if the ISVs can survive the transition and the users get organized. Strong
enough to keep Microsoft on their toes and keep OS/2 the OS for the rest of
us.
shape than it is today. I also think that if OS/2 users, as a whole, can
become more aware of how they affect their own OS/2 computing future that
native OS/2 software will continue to flow.
just beginning.
I meant to put some of my comments here, but if I do that, it will (again)
delay publication - so no comments......
//Lex is who actually steered me to OS/2 and was inavaluable in helping me
set 2.00 up, for which I should, and I am, eternally gratefull. Lex, do you
recall my desperate phone calls on Saturday morning when my video lost
sync, and kept doing it after reboot - till you told me how to start full
screen session to fix it ? //
whose work for the last few years has been all with Windows, and yesterday,
I made him boot OS/2 for the first time in a long while for a particular
reason. And here what he said:
biggest crime of the 21st century how it got ignored."
===========================================================================
CD-ROM offer at the end.
timing and scheduling features of OS/2 ( by Timur Tabi ) - confirmed
REXX is by far the most important asset for OS/2. Unfortunately, IBM has
not been doing a very good job of letting the world know what can be
accomplished with REXX, or more importantly: how you can go about hooking
up your application with the REXX engine (and why). The REXX enablement
documentation from IBM is full of errors and omissions. Not very many IBM
(and Lotus, for that matter) packages can be considered a "shining" example
on how this should be done (or else there would not be any room for Visual
Basic).
design, your application can be open-ended to a degree no Visual Basic, OLE
or DDE based applications can come even close! In this presentation, you
will see a few real-life implementations of C-REXX-C applications. This is
not intended to be a programmer's tutorial - just a demo on what CAN be
done, if the REXX enablement is done right.
8."Cross-Platform Application Development - why include OS/2?"
Inc. )
Migration" tools session. This is the set of tools that the Rapid
Deployment Team will be using to migrate older OS/2 versions up to Merlin.
They will also be used in migration projects to Bluebird.
Optimizing the config.sys, Improving performance, etc
Persell) - confirmed 5.Optimizing OS/2 to support WIN-OS/2 applications
Achieving the correct settings for DOS and Windoze programs which, as of
yet, have no native OS/2 equivalent.
computing environment
new Problem Determination tools.
feather"-type discussion about the new Problem Determination tools that we
will be releasing at the end of this year. These tools include
significantly advnaced versions of System Trace and Process Dump.
Persell) - confirmed
The Win32-OS/2 Project is an attempt by a group of some of the best OS/2
programmers to develop a utility which will convert Win32 apps into native
OS/2 applications. Very simply, the utility will translate all of your .EXE
and .DLL files, and with the help of Open32 and some custom DLL's, your
Windows 95 and NT apps will become native OS/2 applications and run on your
desktop, without requiring a copy of Windows 95 or NT installed! NOTE:
Prior to Warpstock, no other information about the Win32-OS/2 project will
be available. There is no web page, mailing list, or newsgroup. If you
can't attend Warpstock, you will have to wait until someone (not me)
publishes information on this technology. I have been getting lots of
requests for more information. From now on, I will ignore such requests.
presentation will explore how your Warp system hard drives can be easily
set up to take advantage of the disk space, quickly support multiple
operating systems, and better organize your files. We will also look at
methods of cloning your Warp system hard drive on a single system or across
multiple systems. Several of the award winning products from PowerQuest
Corporation will be demonstrated during this seminar, including
PartitionMagic, a frequently used OS/2 utility.
Inc.) - confirmed Come and see a demonstration of this technology, not just
for Dictation and Navigation, but also for Information Retrieval! Speech is
the future. Fingertips are irrelevant. Come and see a demonstration of V
Trex: Information ... at your COMMAND!
16.Speech Recognition
17.Font Management
18.Basic OS/2 tutorial aimed at the new OS/2 user
19.Using the Command Line in OS/2
20.Softouch Systems Products Usage Tips ( Felix Cruz ) - confirmed
GammaTech Utilities FileStar/2 UniMaint
22.Inet.Mail - Paul Hethmon
2.Positioning Network Computing and WorkSpace On-Demand ( TBD )
follow. Security issues in providing Internet service. Both Warp
workstation and Warp server issues. Example: EgeNet
(http://www.egenet.com.tr), a large ISP in Turkey relies heavily on OS/2.
The main domain name server runs on Merlin, two of the busy web servers
runs on ICS for OS/2 with lots of Rexx scripts, and the proxy server,
proxy.egenet.com.tr is also ICS for OS/2..
Management by Arylnn Poczynek ( teamcan@ibm.net ) - confirmed Discuss what
system management is, and the benefits of perfoming system management.
Demonstrate how one performs systems management, including a short
discussion of remote, WAN-connection management. Answer questions.
Sipples ) - confirmed So your PC runs OS/2 Warp, but do you really need a
PC (running anything) to access the Internet? Not if you have an IBM
Network Station. This session demonstrates how OS/2 Warp and the IBM
Network Station work together in even small networks, providing access to
Java and Internet applications through OS/2 Warp. The low cost (under $700)
Network Station is not just for big businesses. It is also great for
schools, libraries, and small businesses, where more than one person needs
access to the network. Since the IBM Network Station loads everything
across the network, even kids will find it hard to damage the computer. Use
OS/2 Warp to write and deliver Java or Lotus Domino programs for the IBM
Network Station. Learn also how the IBM Network Station compares with other
"thin clients," such as "Bluebird.
"
Optimizing, Managing, etc
confirmed
- confirmed
year since the late 80's, someone would predict that that particular year
would be the year of CTI (Computer Telephony Integration). When that did
not happen, they would try again the next year, then the next, and the
next. That year may still come, if the industry gets to know better what
can be accomplished with CTI.
you can incorporate your company's phone traffic into your work flow; how
to deal with your corporate's legacy PBX (all those T1 lines!!!) You will
see sample tools and applications (all OS/2 based) for heavy-duty real life
applications (or mission-critical, or 7/24 - or whatever words you can
think of that are unknown to the Windows world). Come and get your mind
spinning on your way back to your company with CTI project ideas.
trade press". Panel Guests Peter Coffee ( Peter_coffee@zd.com ) - confirmed
David Moskowitz - awaiting confirmation Trevor Smith - awaiting
confirmation
(os2headquarters@mindspring.com) - confirmed This kind of presentation
typically takes an hour because there are both hardware & software issues.
Branding/advertising, "hand-holding," assembly/configuration issues,
software compatibility issues, etc.
conference will be made available - please let us know how many you would
like, and we can reserve them for you.
SBT Information Systems Pty Ltd - Distributor of OS/2 software
fax 61-2 9310-1118 ph 61-2 9310-1214
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~sbt
sbtaus@ibm.net
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