RE: IBM iSeries Advertisements

midrange-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>   2. RE: IBM iSeries Advertisements (Dave Odom)
>
>You wrote with some editing by me to reduce lines:
<snip>
>> I wonder how many of us really have any idea at all what's 'happened'
>to OS/2?


Dave:

Right there is the sole underlying premise to my comment. The editing I did was 
specifically to focus on the pure idea that 'we all know what happened to 
OS/2'. It struck me as an intriguing comment and I wondered how many of "us" 
(Midrange_L listers) would have imagined that IBM still has OS/2 and would have 
a web page leading into "OS/2 Strategy for 2005".

OS/2? Strategy? 2005??? Huh?

Anyone know how much IBM makes from OS/2 nowadays? Since OS/2 was pulled from 
the desktop market a decade ago and focused on the server market, what has 
happened? To tell the truth, I'm very much in the dark. Yet, we "all" know. 
It's long dead. And still yet... "OS/2 Strategy for 2005". (I'm pretty sure the 
strategy is little more than finding more ways to profit from replacing OS/2 
systems with ones that have better service revenues.)


>  From my experience, the shame is that IBM never
>really embraced OS/2 in any serious way but was only a "dip of the toe"
>against Mickysoft.
<snip>
>As for an OS/2 comeback, I SERIOUSLY doubt it.
<snip>
>   The reason is philosophy of operating
>system architectures.  They are fundamentally different between IBM and
>Microsoft.   Even though Microsoft was involved with the development of
>OS/2(and I think some of NT, etc., has some OS/2 in it), it appears that
>OS/2 has more of an IBM mainframe(VM) and to some extent AS/400
>operating system architecture that does anything of Microsoft design. 

There we get into an aspect of OS/2 that's largely faded into dim memory... 
that OS/2 was in big part a Microsoft product early on. That's a history that 
I'd really love to know some details about. What really happened just before 
OS/2 2.0? What was really going on inside of Microsoft? Was it really as much 
of a corporate... hmmm... what word is appropriate here?... some accounts seem 
to characterize it as a betrayal... as legend seems to indicate?

An OS/2 comeback? Yeah, I seriously doubt it too. But "OS/2 Strategy for 2005"? 
What's the deal? Why ain't it dead yet?


>Concerning how much an OS/2 developer is worth to the market place... 
<snip>
>   So, as I believe in micro
>economic principals,  I think your underlying premise there is or will
>be any OS/2 demand, is faulty.

No, my underlying premise was nothing more than exactly what I presented it as. 
What "we all know" can seem murky at times, especially when we don't know.

Further, while open market OS/2 developers are effectively non-existent, there 
are in fact points of demand for them in some very large enterprises. Surely 
the demand must come from ever fewer locations (dramatically fewer, I'm sure); 
but SOMEbody is still involved enough for IBM to supply web browser and Java 
updates for OS/2.

I keep wondering, with a functional browser and semi-recent JVM, along with, 
say, OpenOffice, what would be the possibilities? If any lingering Microsoft 
licensing issues for possible OS/2 internals manage to expire, could an 
open-source OS/2 become possible? How could an open-source OS/2 affect the 
desktop market?

But, "we all know" that OS/2 is dead. I'm just curious is all.

Tom Liotta


-- 
Tom Liotta
The PowerTech Group, Inc.
19426 68th Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032
Phone  253-872-7788 x313
Fax    253-872-7904
http://www.powertech.com


__________________________________________________________________
Switch to Netscape Internet Service.
As low as $9.95 a month -- Sign up today at http://isp.netscape.com/register

Netscape. Just the Net You Need.

New! Netscape Toolbar for Internet Explorer
Search from anywhere on the Web and block those annoying pop-ups.
Download now at http://channels.netscape.com/ns/search/install.jsp