Re: Free OS/400 -- MIDRANGE-L

> Criticism is character forming.  I expect technical people to make
> technical decisions. If you are simply a user then you can ignore what I
> say.  It was the bleating tone in your note that elicited my response.

well, it wasn't meant to be bleating.

we didn't start getting p/c's for everyone until later in the 90's.  before 
that,
we had green screens.

i do not have that much trouble with windows, but i know that some people do.
and i surely wouldn't want to run my business on the windows platform.

about the time i got a p/c and retired my dumb terminal, os/2 was on it's last
legs. and i do not remember the better windows than windows ads.

> Well, they tried the business oriented ads and you didn't buy, so they
> tried to be different (like the Mac) and that didn't work either.  I think
> your argument is specious and you're a sucker for the marketing line.  You
> don't want to make a desicion -- you want to be told what to do (but told
> nicely so you aren't aware of it).

that's not true.  if i was having problems i would have looked around.

> It has always been obvious to those with open eyes and ears.  MS are a
> first rate marketing organization and third rate software company.
> Microsoft make the gullible believe that what MS have is what you want
> rather than the reverse.  IBM have never been very good at that.  So you're
> quite happy to have MS tell you what to do so long as they do it nicely and
> hide the arrogance?  Excuse me while I throw up ...

i didn't say that at all.  that i was quite happy with the way microsoft does
things. i think some of the things bill gates does is repulsive. but marketing 
is
where it's at.  and timing.  part of marketing is getting your message out when
the audience is ripe.  and making them believe you have what they think they
need.  agreed microsoft does a superb job of that.

perhaps the better windows than windows ads were premature.  they would have 
done
better in the late 90's when people were getting fed up with their systems
crashing.  but if they were in the early 90's, most people (execs included) did
not yet have p/c's on their desks so ibm missed their audience.

> I'm not going to continue this discussion any more.  You and others on this
> list have been made aware of alternative operating systems, many of which
> have good application support.  If you want a better desktop environment
> then put your money where your mouth is.  Buy a Mac, buy eCommStation, buy
> a Linux distribution, and format the windows partition.  It's your choice!
> But if you choose to stay with Winslop then don't winge.

the point i was trying to make was that ibm did not make a good case for os/2 to
the general public.  they even failed to make it to some of the ibm faithful.
that was all.

nj

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