Re: Free OS/400

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nina Jones" <ddi@datadesigninc.com>
To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2001 7:51 PM
Subject: Re: Free OS/400


> but what was ibm's goal for os/2?  were they trying to get into the
business
> market, or capture the kid's market?  were they trying to oust microsoft
as the
> distributed p/c operating system?

Actually, that is a good question. IBM originally targetted the business
community with OS/2. When they had dumped billions into that attempt, they
considered the idea that they might need to enter through the consumer
market and "trickle up" to the business market. In other words, if people
put OS/2 on their home computers they'd be more likely to suggest it at the
office and there would be a larger number of OS/2 "experts" around to
support moves to OS/2. So, IBM went in that direction.

They did things like give away free CDs of games that they had ported to
OS/2 and stuff like that.

IBM wanted OS/2 to be a desktop operating system alternative to 32 bit
Windows. That means that whereever you see a Windows box, IBM wanted OS/2 to
be a choice for that machine.

The original idea was that IBM and Microsoft would both develop, support,
and market OS/2. This had been the agreement with DOS. For consumers, that
has been wonderful. Sure, it was a little tough keeping up with the
upgrades! There was a new version out every three months to "one up" the
other. Both building in features that the other would jump to include.

Of course, I recall that Microsoft got in trouble with that, too. They were
sued for stealing some of the technology they rolled into DOS.

To me, that would have been an excellent position for the consumer to be in.
OS/2 is what Microsoft is still striving to put together. Crazy, but that is
really true. I remember that I used to have a little clock on my desktop to
remind me to reboot once a week or so. I never shut my machine off and there
is some "housekeeping" done at boot up so I wanted to know when it had been
a week so I could reboot. But I also never shut applications down so if I
had something running I was in the middle of, I might just leave it up there
a few more days until I felt like rebooting.

Man, I miss that.

> there was an article in usa today when bill gates was in hot water a year
or so
> ago, explaining what the problems were.  it said that microsoft's profit
margin
> was 40%, twice the industry average.  and the public was being harmed
because
> windows had such a lock on the industry that microsoft does not have
incentive to
> fix their problems.  so everyone suffers from their sloppiness.
>
> usa today is a widely read newspaper, but i would imagine that most p/c
users did
> not see or read the article, or if they did, did not understand the
implications.

Quite true. The big issue is not understainding the implications. Those
people I know who support Microsoft through their trials feel that the whole
issue is simply people complaining that Microsoft makes too much money. The
issue is _HOW_ they make that much. If Microsoft provided the best products
in a competitive marketplace, then I'd be all happy if they made 10 times as
much.

I am for a split up even though that would make Bill Gates a lot richer than
he already is. I don't care how much money he has, I care about the
marketplace I deal in. I think it was unfortunate for everyone that
Microsoft wasn't split into two or even three entities. If they had been,
you might have seen some unusual deals being made over the next decade. If
the OS division was responsible for its own profitability, then they'd have
to look for the best financial deal when they looked to bundle applications.
That could put a whole new spin on things.

> nj

Chris Rehm
javadisciple@earthlink.net
If you believe that the best technology wins the
marketplace, you haven't been paying attention.


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