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>
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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 <brahms@NECAM.tdd.sj.nec.com> 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 ]
