Re: Fwd: Midrange Predictions, & Stuff -- MIDRANGE-L

Chris Rehm Asked for it.....
 Here are some of last years predictions.  Read 'em and weep.

At 02:38 PM 1/3/97 -0500, Kris Neely wrote:
>In a message dated 97-01-02 22:11:57 EST, mahadevan@fuse.net (Dave Mahadevan)
>writes:
>
>> Chris Rehm wrote:
>>  > 
>>  > Hey, anybody care to make a few predictions about what we will see
>>  > happening in '97?
>>  
>>  Chris, to irritate the heck out of you: my prediction IBM will pull the
>>  plug on OS/2 :-)
>>  
>>  -- 
>>  Thank You.
>>  
>>  Regards
>>  Dave Mahadevan
>>  mahadevan@fuse.net
>>  
>I thought I'd take a moment to wade into the discussion here.
>
>First, I'd like to say that the arguing over are OS/400, Win NT, et al..
> operating systems is.... interesting. There is one thought I'd like to add:
>thank god (or whatever diety you prefer) that the direction of OSs is **OUT**
>of the hands of IS professionals. Like they say about war, 'tis true about
>computing: It's too important to be left to IS professionals. We (the IS
>professionals) get turned on by esoteric things like date routines, bit
>stuffing, and the eternal devate over the RPG cycle. And years ago, when PCs
>were "Personal Computers" instead of "Pretty Commonplace" as they are
>today... OS issues and selection were our domain.
>
>Today (and ** MORE ** importantly TOMMORROW) OS selection is out of our hands
>and in the hands of the people, where it belongs. Why did OS/2 die? (Yes, it
>died. IBM just hasn't sent out the letter...) Did OS/2 die because it was
>inferior to Windows? No. Was it a "bad" OS? No. OD/2 died because it didn't
>sell in the 'burbs. There was no compelling reason for
>"the-guy-down-the-street" to drop Windows and take up OS/2. And in the
>Workplace, what IS manager is gonna shove OS/2 down the throats of users who
>DEMAND Windows because...you guessed it, that's what they use at home! SO...
>OS/2 died. (The author admits to GREATLY simplifing a complex issue.) But the
>heart of the argument remains untouched: computers belong to USERS not us.
>(Although some of us have been rumored to be "users", but I don't want to
>spread malicious gossip...)
>
>More for '97... after "The Great Internet Crash of '97", you'll see thin
>client take hold as legacy apps (a very polite term for some of the WORST
>code ever written, in some cases) begin to lose their hold (finally) in the
>marketplace. 
>
>The herd-migration (is that redundant?) to Win NT will begin in ernest, in
>'97. (IBM will embrace NT for the AS/400 after a tabloid magazine reveals pix
>of the CEO of IBM wearing a T-Shirt that says, "My Folks Went to Redmond, and
>all I got was Windows NT and this Damn T-Shirt!!".
>
>IBM will continue to innovate some of the best designed and most reliable
>hardware in the world. Microsoft will continue to so the same thing for
>software. (Some say they will accomplish this by buying every software
>company on the Planet. I tend to pass on this idea...)
>
>Intel will continue its push to kill off the DEC Alpha CPU line. This would
>be a SERIOUS loss for the computing world. The Alpha line is IMPORTANT. Pity
>IBM can't see their way clear to using these chips someplace....
>
>Next, the Year 2000 issue will continue to be debated... and will be revealed
>as the biggest collective screw-up in computing HISTORY. (This issue is gonna
>be B-A-D... and I, like many of you, have written the code that will make it
>bad. But then, >wink< that was **YEARS*** ago, right?)
>
>And my last comment on predictions for '97 (Boy, this one will win me some
>friends..) Visual RPG will be revealed to be a complete waste of time and
>effort. It's an oxymoron to begin with. WHY would one want to invest the $$$
>of a corporation in a language so proprietary? I can't think of a reason (and
>no, I won't buy the old saw: "We're trying to preserve the language expertise
>of our programmers." My reply is, well if they won't change with the times,
>remind them of what happened to the Dinosaurs...).
>
>Happy New Year
>Kris "I HONESTLY Believe the AS/400 is a GREAT Computer" Neely
>---------------------
>Forwarded message:
>From:  mahadevan@fuse.net (Dave Mahadevan)
>Sender:        mcsnet!midrange.com!midrange-l-owner@Kitten.mcs.com
>Reply-to:      MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
>To:    MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
>Date: 97-01-02 22:11:57 EST
>
>Chris Rehm wrote:
>> 
>> Hey, anybody care to make a few predictions about what we will see
>> happening in '97?
>
>Chris, to irritate the heck out of you: my prediction IBM will pull the
>plug on OS/2 :-)
>
>-- 
>Thank You.
>
>Regards
>Dave Mahadevan
>mahadevan@fuse.net
>
>
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>kandr
>
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>umidr
>
>

--

John Earl       Lighthouse Software Inc.
8514 71st NW    Gig Harbor, WA 98335
253-858-7388    johnearl@lns400.com

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