Re: Free OS/400 -- MIDRANGE-L

It's funny, I don't remember any of the Windows ads, but I do remember the
OS/2 ads.

Actually, I just had a thought that maybe Bill is even more clever than I
thought. First, he managed to get PC manufacturers to include DOS on every
machine they sold. So right away you've got an uphill battle to convince
management that something that's "free" should be replaced with something
that costs $.  Then comes the even sneakier part. It doesn't quite work. Is
it a bug, or did I just do something wrong? What about all those other
people that use it? They got it to work didn't they? It must be me. No, no
way. That's obviously a bug. Now all I have to do is convince management...

Or maybe it's simply the philosophy (which I've heard attributed to the
Chinese) that you should not attain perfection -- there should be a few bugs
for others to find so they won't feel so bad about you developing such a
perfect product. I think the original scenario was newspaper editors leaving
in a few typos or grammatical errors...

Peter Dow
Dow Software Services, Inc.
909 425-0194 voice
909 425-0196 fax



----- Original Message -----
From: "Nina Jones" <ddi@datadesigninc.com>
To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2001 11:06 PM
Subject: Re: Free OS/400


> > 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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