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Long-term prospects for Symantec's product lines

From PC Week for November 7, 1994

Last week, I looked at Symantec's acquisition-fueled growth strategy and
its three product lines: utilities, tools, and applications. This week I
want to examine the challenges facing those products.

Desktop utilities. I predict a surprise win for Symantec from its
desktop utilities -- but not before it goes through slow times waiting
for Windows 95. I thought Microsoft would stuff so many utilities into
Win 95 that third-party products would become redundant. I was wrong. In
fact, recent rumors say Microsoft is pulling extras out to sell
separately as the "Windows 95 Plus Pack."

There will be a huge market for Win 95 utilities and add-ons. Since
Symantec purchased two of its major competitors last year (Fifth
Generation and Central Point) and has hot new 32-bit versions in the
wings, it should be far and away the market leader. It just has to make
it through next year's inevitable slow period, as customers start
postponing purchases until Windows 95 gets here.

Enterprise utilities. Symantec has a midterm win with NAN (Norton
Administrator for Networks), but a serious long-term challenge.
Microsoft's just-released Systems Management Server will be included in
the Microsoft BackOffice suite. I expect that eventually -- about one
year from now -- BackOffice will have the same effect on network
applications as Microsoft Office had on productivity applications. It
will drive down prices and margins and make bundled suites the primary
way to buy. Long term, NAN may ne ed to become part of a suite to
continue as a market leader.

(Keep an eye out for Symantec's unreleased enterprise backup product. If
it succeeds in solving the tough technical problems of network backups,
it could tap into a huge pent-up demand.)

Tools. I'm not predicting a major win for Symantec's tools, but I am
adding them to my list of dark-horse possibilities. Its C++ and its
client/server products both face ferocious competition. Still, I got
sneak previews of new versions with unique features that could gain them
market share.

Applications. Although Symantec has other applications, only Act and
Timeline are getting much attention. In both cases, Symantec is trying
to upsize desktop applications into departmental solutions. It has
released a network version of Act, its contact manager. Act should
continue to do well, but next year it will run into stiff opposition
from established competitors as well as a rumored personal information
manager from Microsoft. The Timeline project manager has been
repositioned as a high-end tool (so as not to go head-to-head with
Microsoft's Project). Repositioning should help, but high-end project
management is never going to be a huge category.

When you examine Symantec's applications business, you run smack into a
problem that often goes unnoticed: the lack of synergy between its
product lines. Next week, I'll wrap up my report with a discussion of
this issue and a look at the hidden assets that could help Symantec
overcome this challenge.

Response of the week: From Brian Arnold, director of software
development at Lumina Decision Systems: "Dennis Eskow says Apple does
not understand capitalism and created a religion locking out all but the
orthodox. Apple made over $9 billion this year, $2 billion more than
last year. Unless I'm mistaken, they have a fairly good idea of what
capitalism is. As for religion, Apple has finally developed Windows
applications, Windows technologies, and a Unix implementation of the Mac
OS. Is that how he defines orthodox?"

Jesse Berst can be reached via the Internet ([e-mail]), MCI
Mail (JBERST or 314-8466), CompuServe (71337,2052), or fax (206-883-
1452).

================================================================

If Warp is the answer, what is the question?

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Peter Coffee

My wife looked up from Page 1 of PC Week, a puzzled expression on her
face. "But I thought you liked OS/2," she said.

She wasn't the only reader surprised by the story "OS/2 Warp: Incomplete
desktop solution," which I co-authored with Eamonn Sullivan in the Oct.
24 issue. But it's one thing to like OS/2, which I do, and quite another
thing to predict mainstream success for OS/2 Warp Version 3.

Warp is a significant upgrade, fixing many of the persistent irritations
that troubled even full-time OS/2 users such as myself. Warp makes it
harder to break your installation, and easier to fix it, thanks to new
configuration aids. Warp is noticeably faster than earlier versions in
routine GUI operations. The Workplace Shell is now a self-cleaning
desktop, with optional automatic closure of a "parent" folder when a new
subfolder is opened.

Yes, Warp is a nice OS/2 upgrade, and maybe IBM will give me a version
that I can install without reformatting my hard disk. This has nothing
to do with the bugs that required a product recall to fix at the end of
October. The reformatting problems were actually designed to occur. OS/2
Warp Version 3 simply will not install over OS/2 2.x unless you're using
OS/2 for Windows.

So deep-dyed OS/2 users such as myself, who might have recommended the
product, are not eligible. IBM will spend millions of extra ad dollars
to make up for this brain-dead gaffe.

But let's focus on the fundamentals. OS/2 is a technology. Warp is a
product. Technologies have functions. Products have benefits. Warp was
meant to package OS/2 in a way that offered benefits to millions of
users who are not excited by technology. Warp had to be easy to try and
easy to like.

Is Warp easy to try? Our report mentioned showstopping installation bugs
that cannot be blamed on esoteric hardware, since they were also
encountered at several other publications. Within days of our story,
though, IBM had found possible causes and recalled the product. We'll
see if IBM gets it right the second time -- but either way, Warp will
still lack an "uninstall" utility. Even DOS has that.

Is Warp easy to like? Well, for one thing, IBM claims that Warp will
"run comfortably in 4M bytes of RAM." Opinions are divided over who
really cares, but IBM said it had done this, so we tested the claim and
found out some interesting things.

When Warp's installation program detects a 4M-byte system, it's designed
to compromise multimedia and video support in the interest of reducing
memory footprint. We wonder if "comfortably" is the right word:
"desperately" might be more like it.

Other tests show that even a compromised Warp in a 4M-byte machine took
three times as long as Windows to run a task set based on the widely
used Excel and Word. These are the applications that users have paid to
use, and OS/2 Warp is not an attractive place to use them in 4M bytes --
or, as it turned out, in 8M bytes or even 12M bytes of RAM. Even on a
16M-byte machine, I still saw some Windows apps drawing windows slowly
or incorrectly.

Native apps are nice, but they need a user base to attract them, and
that base wants to start with the software it has. I use DeScribe for
OS/2, but I also use Microsoft Access. Windows support is important,
even to OS/2 proponents such as me.

And Warp will not keep even the marginally satisfied Windows user from
waiting to see if Windows 95 is better.

Peter Coffee can be reached via MCI Mail at 357-1756 or on CompuServe at
72631,113.

================================================================

Big Three will show native apps at Comdex

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Ted Smalley Bowen

The Big Three PC application providers will vie for the spotlight at
Comdex next week with the first public demonstrations of upcoming
Windows 95 wares.

Although the official release of Windows 95 is still an estimated six
months away, demonstrations by Microsoft Corp., Novell Inc., and Lotus
Development Corp. will mark the opening salvos in the battle for
corporate mind share as IS managers contemplate moving to the new 32-bit
desktop environment.

"We're finally going to be able to use the promise of what we've heard
all along," said Don Baarns, president of Baarns Consulting Inc., in
Sylmar, Calif. "The average user will be able to run the three power
applications from a suite at once."

In all, Microsoft officials said there will be more than 34 Windows 95
applications, with 15 supporting OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) 2.0,
shown at Comdex. Those vendors include Corel Corp., Delrina Corp.,
Powersoft Corp., Shapeware Corp., SAS Institute Inc., Software
Publishing Corp., and Symantec Corp.

Microsoft will offer a technology demonstration of its Office
applications running on Windows 95, highlighting long file-name support,
multitasking, and faster performance, said Robbie Bach, Office program
director for the Redmond, Wash., firm.

"It won't be a demonstration, per se, of the next-generation features of
the applications, but it will be focused on the ways in which they will
take advantage of the operating system's capabilities," Bach said.
"They're not to the point where they'd be useful for benchmarking."

Novell's WordPerfect division will showcase WordPerfect for Windows 95,
which sources close to the Orem, Utah, firm said is substantially faster
and sports a cleaner user interface than the Windows 3.1 version.

In addition, the program's WYSIWYG capabilities are more accurate in the
Windows 95 version. Also on tap are plans to include a Visual Basic for
Applications-compatible language and OCX compatibility.

Novell will show the software running on Windows NT on a PowerPC system,
officials said. The presentation will highlight the shared code
underneath the firm's 32-bit implementations, which will allow Novell to
deploy versions for Windows NT, Windows 95, and other platforms at the
same time, they said.

Lotus will preview 32-bit versions of its SmartSuite applications, said
officials from the Cambridge, Mass., company. Sources said the Lotus
applications exploit 32-bit OLE 2.0 performance, enhanced application
integration, multimedia support, and improved printing using
multitasking.

Users said they expect to see the job of supporting applications made
easier by dint of Windows 95's protected-mode memory and the removal of
the DOS 640K-byte limit. "We will get a more stable environment for our
users," said Bill Vannerson, supervisor of user services at Blue Cross
Blue Shield in Chicago, which has standardized on Office.

But users are also concerned about Microsoft's ability to run Windows 95
in 4M bytes of memory, as Microsoft has promised, since beta
implementations of Windows 95 reportedly require at least 33MHz 486DX-
based systems with 8M bytes of memory.

"I'm concerned about the resource requirements of Windows 95. We have
close to 2,000 users," said Richard Byrnes, a technical specialist in
the data systems department of the Los Angeles Municipal Court. "Most of
our users are at the 386 level. If what we hear about Windows 95 is
true, we won't be able to upgrade. On the plus side, we're looking
forward to faster performance and a cleaner GUI with Windows 95
applications."

================================================================

$30 fee proposed to test Windows 95

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft Corp. early next year will open its Windows 95 beta program to
as many as 400,000 testers worldwide -- charging them $30 each to test
the latest edition of the operating system.

The Windows 95 Preview Program release will be the next full beta
version of the product after Beta 2, which is slated to begin going to
30,000 testers this week. The preview release will be followed by an
undetermined number of Windows 95 product-release candidates, which will
go to successively fewer testers before Microsoft formally launches
Windows 95 by mid-1995, according to Microsoft's current plan.

The plan to include as many as 400,000 testers marks a major expansion
of the preview program. Microsoft originally planned to offer it to
100,000 testers.

The Preview release will mark the first time Microsoft will sell a
separate beta version of Windows. Microsoft included a beta-test version
of Windows NT 3.1 in a Win32 software development kit that it sold to
testers in 1992 for about $60.

Windows 95 Preview testers will receive the latest version of the
operating system on CD with the Windows 95 resource kit, documentation,
and phone support. The $30 fee is designed to help cover media and
support costs.

The Preview group will include a substantial number of testers chosen by
Microsoft, including some who didn't make it into previous beta
programs, NetWare resellers, Solution Providers, and IS professionals
with small to midsized companies who attend Microsoft's Windows 95 IS
sessions.

Microsoft will offer the remaining slots on a first-come, first-served
basis at a later date, said Jeff Thiel, group manager with Microsoft's
personal operating systems division, in Redmond, Wash.

Users who haven't yet made the beta cut were interested in getting in on
the Preview program. "Our current Windows setup is crude and nasty, so
we'll be ready to upgrade in 1995," said Peter Brantley, manager of
computing and communications with the University of California at San
Francisco's main library. "We want the physical media now to get things
in place."

Prospective testers said they don't mind paying for the beta as long as
they get an early shot at it. "Thirty dollars is a reasonable price,
especially if they give us a discount when the full product is
available," said Tom Capote, operations manager with National Microcomp
Services Inc., in Tustin, Calif. "With OS/2 out there, Microsoft needs
to avoid all possible bugs and test this on as many configurations as
possible."

Phone support will be provided by Microsoft and five partners -- Digital
Equipment Corp., Keane Inc., MicroAge Computer Center Inc., SoftMart
Inc., and Unisys Corp.

At the same time as it conducts its Preview Program beta test, Microsoft
will run a smaller, technical beta program for its core group of 30,000
or so testers who have been working with Windows 95 betas for some time,
said Thiel. Those testers will continue to file formal bug reports and
have access to the Windows 95 beta forum; the Preview testers will
provide input on a more informal basis, he said.

================================================================

Tool addresses Notes Express limitations

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Paula Rooney

One of Lotus Development Corp.'s neighbors has come up with a way to let
Notes Express users access custom Notes applications -- using Microsoft
Corp. technology.

Brainstorm Technologies Inc., a Notes third-party developer in
Cambridge, Mass., last week released a low-cost version of its VB/Link
connectivity software for Lotus' recently released Notes Express client.

At $149, VB/Link Desktop provides a low-cost, entry-level product for
building Notes applications using Microsoft's Visual Basic. The
company's full-scale VB/Link for Lotus Notes software costs $995.

VB/Link Desktop applications provide Notes Express users with read and
write access to many established Notes databases and applications.

Lotus has faced a storm of criticism about its $99 Notes Express client
because Express includes just five basic database templates that won't
work with custom Notes applications, severely limiting its use in
current Notes sites.

One beta tester of VB/Link Desktop said the software is useful as a low-
cost product for building Visual Basic applications for Notes, but it
still has limitations.

"This will let you get to the Notes API from [Visual Basic], but it
won't let you create [custom] Notes databases and it only works on local
databases, not those on a network server," said George Hoffman, an
information specialist for Sandoz Agro Inc., in Arlington Heights, Ill.

Separately, Lotus, also of Cambridge, is considering releasing a version
of Notes specifically for ISVs, sources said.

Developers would be able to build the stripped-down version into their
applications, allowing sites that did not have Notes installed to use
them, sources said. A final decision on the product probably won't be
made until next year, they added.

Lotus officials declined to comment.

================================================================

Internet browser to promote desktop integration

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Ted Smalley Bowen

Booklink Technologies Inc. has introduced an Internet browser for
Windows that uses OLE 2.0 to create hypertext links between desktop
applications and on-line services.

The multithreaded InternetWorks presents users with a single GUI for
accessing all available Internet protocols and services. In addition, it
allows users to create custom applications for accessing Internet
services using Visual Basic or Visual C/C++, according to company
officials at the CMG Information Services subsidiary, in Wilmington,
Mass.

"I think it's a tremendous leap. It makes the Internet more of a useful
tool," said beta tester Brian Connelly, president of South Carolina
SuperNet Inc., an access provider in Columbia. "You now have a method to
not only print data from the Internet, but you can directly drag it into
your application, or set up direct links to your local document."

Booklink has initiated a VAR program targeting Visual Basic and Visual C
developers who will create custom applications incorporating the
browser, CEO David Wetherell said.

"Financial services and publishing represent two strong opportunities,"
Wetherell said.

InternetWorks includes New Rider Publishing's Internet Yellow Pages, a
directory of Internet sites. The package also allows users to create
custom home pages, access bit-mapped graphics, and generate HTML
(Hypertext Markup Language) documents.

InternetWorks provides support for such communications protocols as
TCP/IP, Winsock, Serial Line Interface Protocol, and Point-to-Point
Protocol, as well as Internet protocols and services including E-mail,
network newsgroups, Hypertext Transfer Protocol, Gopher, File Transfer
Protocol, and Wide Area Information Servers.

The $129 InternetWorks package, which will be available next month and
will be offered at $99 through Jan. 31, includes Internet access service
through Internet Express.

Booklink will also distribute as shareware a scaled-down version of the
browser, minus Object Linking and Embedding 2.0 support, E-mail
capabilities, and the Internet directory.

The browser is available through resellers and directly from Booklink.

================================================================

DEC pledges clustering for Windows NT

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Mary Jo Foley

Digital Equipment Corp., the inventor of clustering technology, will be
the first out of the gate with clustering extensions for Microsoft
Corp.'s Windows NT, showing its system at Comdex next week.

DEC is designing its clustering product to be an add-on layer of
software, consisting of drivers and dynamically loadable libraries, that
would run on top of NT servers, officials said.

Clustering, which involves providing a shared system environment across
loosely coupled single- and multiprocessor systems, is one of several
ways to provide high availability for applications that have to be up
and running constantly. Distributed-, parallel-, and transaction-
processing applications are particularly suited to run on clustered
systems, DEC officials claimed.

DEC's NT clustering product is not a port of its Unix or VMS clustering
systems, officials said. The NT clustering system is designed to work
initially across heterogeneous groups of Intel and Alpha systems. The
Maynard, Mass., company is expecting to add support for MIPS and PowerPC
systems in future releases, officials said.

The introduction of clustering for NT is likely to make this
distributed, high-availability computing technology more affordable to
small to midsized businesses for the first time, observers said.

"Today, a low-end clustering system costs an average of $90,000," said
Wesley Melling, an analyst with Gartner Group Inc., in Stamford, Conn.
"An NT cluster at around $25,000 is a possibility. This will expand the
market for non-stop computing."

In addition, DEC's NT clustering technology is not tied to any vendor's
hardware or database, which isn't the case with the Unix and OpenVMS
clustering solutions currently available, Melling said.

One Windows NT user was excited about the prospects of NT clustering.
"High availability is extremely important to us," said Ed Tuosto,
director of application development for Sealand Services Inc., in
Elizabeth, N.J. "Whether it is one box with fault tolerance or
clustering across multiple boxes," the benefit would be the same, he
said.

Another user said multiprocessor systems provided adequate scalability
for his company's needs. "Clustering isn't that interesting to us. We
don't see any application we have that would require it," said Mike
Dripps, technology consultant with GTE's Technology Services division,
in Tampa, Fla.

By the time DEC goes into beta with its NT clustering product in mid-
1995, a number of other OEMs are expected to toss their hats into the
ring, including AT&T Global Information Solutions, Compaq Computer
Corp., and Sequent Computer Systems Inc. DEC is planning to begin
shipping the NT clustering product by the end of 1995, company officials
said.

================================================================

Microsoft consent decree spurs little public comment

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Jane Morrissey

Another chapter in the U.S. Department of Justice's entanglement with
Microsoft Corp. was written last week with the publication of the
department's response to comments made on the July consent decree.

Only five parties submitted opinions on the consent decree to the court,
and they will be published with the Justice Department's responses in
the Federal Register within the next few weeks, prior to a final
judgment. The consent decree limits Microsoft's OEM licensing and non-
disclosure agreement practices, which the department determined slowed
industry innovation, raised prices, and deprived consumers of a choice
among competing operating systems.

Antitrust experts said the consent decree is likely to sail through the
process, since there were so few comments and so few significant
concerns raised. Moreover, the lack of comments reinforces the wide
industry sentiment that the consent decree has done little to alter
Microsoft's conduct or open up new opportunities.

"I'd be floored if it was anything but a rubber stamp," said one
antitrust attorney.

Three of the five filings relate to Microsoft practices that were not
addressed by the decree and therefore, under law, have no bearing on the
review, according to the Justice Department.

Only one comment directly addressed the proposed consent decree. IDEA
Associates Inc., a Microsoft OEM in Billerica, Mass., contends its
minimum-commitment license agreement with Microsoft resulted in more
than $2 million in prepaid royalties, and it argues that the decree
should be amended to refund "unused" royalties.

The Justice Department responded that the decree only bars Microsoft
from entering into minimum-commitment contracts in the future and, thus,
does not require the Redmond, Wash., company to provide retroactive
royalties.

"I don't see anything in [the decree] that suggests that there might be
a significant problem," said Microsoft attorney David Curtis. "We are
hopeful the decree will be approved by the court."

================================================================

Consumer PCs lead off DEC's indirect push

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Lisa DiCarlo and Stephanie LaPolla

Digital Equipment Corp.'s plan to steer systems sales through indirect
channels took two steps forward last week as DEC ventured into the
consumer market with an entry-level line of PCs.

DEC also unveiled the Systems Business Unit, a group recruiting VARs,
resellers, and system integrators to boost Alpha AXP workstation and
server sales.

Enrico Pesatori, vice president and general manager of DEC's Computer
Systems Division, in May outlined DEC's plan to move away from direct
sales to pushing high-volume products through indirect channels. Other
DEC executives have said that by year's end, DEC will sell 75 percent of
its PCs, workstations, and servers through resellers.

DEC, currently migrating about 4,000 accounts from direct sales to its
channel partners, plans to maintain a small direct-sales force for large
corporate accounts. The Maynard, Mass., company's new Systems Business
Unit is an account business unit that will ultimately handle only about
25 percent of DEC's Alpha business, said Peter Miller, director of Alpha
systems marketing.

Corporate users of DEC products were worried about the transition to
indirect channels.

"For the very low-end products, it might be a good solution, because the
mom-and-pop outfits buy from stores anyway," said Joe Nastasi, an
independent consultant in Bricktown, N.J. "But for someone in the
corporate environment, it makes me nervous."

DEC's new consumer PC line, called Starion, initially will be sold
exclusively through CompUSA and Sam's Club. Each outlet will carry
different products in an attempt to reduce channel conflict, said Rod
Keller, DEC's director of consumer marketing.

All systems feature 16-bit sound, speakers and a microphone, an
answering machine, fax communications software, Intel Corp.'s ProShare
data-conferencing software, and a CD ROM drive.

CompUSA will carry the Starion 300, 500, and 700 models, priced at
$1,699, $2,299, and $2,799, respectively. Sam's will carry Starion 200
and 400 models, tagged at $1,799 and $2,399.

"We intend to be a top-five [PC] player by the end of 1995, and we can't
make it without having a presence in the [small-office and home-office]
market," Keller said.

Even though DEC is a late entrant to that PC market, analysts said there
is plenty of opportunity for market share gains -- something DEC badly
needs.

"This is an absolute necessary move for DEC" to get back on the map,
said Robert Corpuz, an analyst at Dataquest Inc., in San Jose, Calif.

================================================================

Players jockey for position in PCS auction

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Michael Moeller

Major wireless carriers, RBOCs, various consortia, and individuals were
among the 74 applicants that signed up by the Federal Communications
Commission's deadline last month to compete in the Dec. 5 broadband
Personal Communications Services auction.

That number may be scaled back because of the requirement that all
applicants pay an "up-front" fee next week for each license they plan to
bid on, which in some cases can cost as much as $15 million for one
license.

This, said FCC officials, is to weed out potential PCS bidders that are
not seriously committed to providing users with wireless communications
and data transmission capabilities as part of the auction, which could
raise as much as $20 billion.

"I think this is good because you will only see companies willing to be
in this for the long haul take part in PCS," said Sally York, director
of communications at USL Capital, a financial-services company in San
Francisco. "Only those companies that are really committed to wireless
technology will take part."

Many of the auction applicants came as no surprise -- AT&T Corp.; the
consortium of Sprint Communications Co., Cox Cable Corp., Comcast Corp.,
and Tele-Communications Inc.; The National Wireless Alliance; and all
other Regional Bell Operating Companies registered for the bidding.

However, there were a few unexpected entrants, including Dallas-based
systems integrator Electronic Data Systems Corp. and Craig McCaw,
founder of McCaw Cellular Communications Inc., recently bought by AT&T.

Though it registered to enter the PCS auction, EDS officials said they
had no plans to join forces with other potential bidders. McCaw said he
signed up for the auction to bid on those licenses for which AT&T is not
allowed to compete. FCC regulations allow AT&T and all other cellular
providers to bid on broadband PCS licenses only where they have no
cellular presence. The FCC is set to auction off two licenses for each
of the 48 designated regions and one for each of the three remaining
areas.

In those three areas, the second license has been granted to a company
awarded "pioneer preference" status.

Among those not planning to participate in the PCS auction are MCI
Communications Corp. and Time Warner Inc. Officials at MCI, in Colorado
Springs, Colo., said they see no reason to own the spectrum to be able
to provide nationwide wireless coverage.

The biggest impact of PCS will be to dramatically lower prices on
current wireless technology, according to Ian Gillott, manager of
wireless communications at Link Resources Corp., in New York.

"PCS is going to be the top-notch wireless technology used by those that
can afford it," said Gillott. "This will make cellular services come
down to a price that most people will be able to afford. PCS will come
down in price, but not for a while."

================================================================

IBM PC users to get Win 95 upgrade path

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Lisa DiCarlo

The massive installed base of 386 and 486 PCs that can't make use of
forthcoming Plug and Play technology might not be left out in the cold
after all.

IBM last week signed a deal with Communica Inc., under which the Bourne,
Mass., startup will enhance IBM's SurePath BIOS with technologies such
as Plug and Play support.

The plan calls for Communica to modify the SurePath BIOS to take full
advantage of the Windows 95 operating system. Priced at $75, the ROM
chip upgrade is due in the first quarter.

In addition to the IBM deal for retrofitting older PS/2s and ValuePoints
with the ROM chip, Communica is working on deals with other major
manufacturers, said Matt Trask, the firm's president. Such deals require
collaboration with the individual PC maker because they need to give
Communica specific data about system designs, Trask said.

But interest in upgrading older machines for Windows 95 is apparently
low.

"Rarely have I seen any meaningful BIOS updates in chip form," said
David Rorabaugh, systems specialist at Dickstein, Morrin and Shapiro, in
Washington.

================================================================

Marvel beta leverages Win 95 desktop

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Eamonn Sullivan and Matt Kramer

The Microsoft Network, Microsoft Corp.'s new on-line service, is taking
the first steps toward joining the ranks of more established services
such as CompuServe and America Online by tying itself into Windows 95's
navigational tools.

Also known by the code name Marvel, Microsoft Network will reach beta
testers in large numbers as part of the second major beta version of
Windows 95, due this week. PC Week Labs took a look at the on-line
service on a late-release candidate of the second beta.

Microsoft Network's on-line services are well-integrated into the
Windows 95 user interface. The content is very sparse at this stage, but
once populated with information service providers, Microsoft Network may
prove to be a valuable information source for Windows 95 users. The
information that is available is well-organized into a hierarchy of
folders and icons.

Navigating discussion groups and chat areas was similar to navigating
local files and folders. Windows front ends to America Online and
CompuServe, in contrast, are separate applications.

With Microsoft Network, we were able to create a link (called a
Shortcut) to a discussion group and place the link on the Windows 95
desktop, where it appeared like any other folder. When we double-clicked
on the discussion group, Windows 95 automatically re-established our
connection before opening the icon.

Shortcut icons can be embedded as Object Linking and Embedding 2.0
objects, allowing users to distribute them.

Messaging services are just as well-integrated. We could use the
standard Microsoft Exchange E-mail client included with Windows 95 to
compose and send messages.

================================================================

Personalized news delivered to your desktop

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Jeff Frentzen

If you're connected to the Internet or a commercial on-line service, you
don't have to wait for the evening TV news to find out what's happening.
On-line news services let you specify the subject matter you want to
look at and filter the rest; or you can log on to a service and read
every news article traveling down the wire.

CompuServe's Executive News Service searches for keywords from 20 news
wires and stores relevant electronic clippings in private, user-
customized folders.

Users with Internet connections, though, will discover an explosion of
news services, both free and subscription-based.

DowVision, an Internet-based service from Dow Jones, includes the full
text of The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times News Service,
Business Wire, and other providers. DowVision, which currently is being
beta tested publicly, can be found via the World-Wide Web at
http://dowvision.wais.net/.

Another provider, QuoteCom, offers a similar service, allowing both free
and fee-based searches that cater to the business executive and
investment firms. You can visit QuoteCom at http://www.quote.com/.

Clarinet Communications, the company responsible for the vast Usenet-
based news service, also supplies live and archived news reports
(including technology-related wire stories and computer-industry news).
They are on view at http://www.clarinet.com/.

Other Internet-based news-gathering outfits provide third-party software
that retrieves information and creates a daily, personalized electronic
newspaper. For example, Ensemble Information Systems' innovative
software scans the myriad information sources on the Internet,
presenting only the material that you want to see. For more information,
point your browser at http://www.ensemble.com/.

For surfers who prefer to browse manually through electronic news,
Prodigy offers up-to-date articles that combine text and graphics. The
most expensive of these services, the Dow Jones News/Retrieval Service
on-line financial service, searches more than 1,200 global news wires;
users can search on-line or have their news delivered via MCI Mail.

In addition, more than 50 newspapers and 30 magazines have begun to
offer cyberspace editions of their wares via commercial on-line services
and the Internet.

================================================================

DEC, Sharp ready infrared-enabled portables

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Michael R. Zimmerman and Michael
Moeller

Joining the dozens of vendors lining the aisles at Comdex with new
notebooks, Digital Equipment Corp. and Sharp Electronics Corp. will
introduce portables with such features as infrared communications.

At the Las Vegas show next week, DEC will release its first homegrown
units, including a 3.5-pound notebook that measures 8.5 by 11 inches by
1 inch and sports a 6-hour lithium-ion battery, built-in infrared, and a
full-sized keyboard, said sources close to the Maynard, Mass., company.
DEC also will release a family of full-sized 4.5-pound systems, the
sources said.

Meanwhile, Sharp will unveil its full-sized PC-8900 and PC-8700
notebooks. To tap into Sharp's base of almost 10 million Wizard palmtop
users, the PCs will include built-in infrared support and a utility for
uploading and downloading data from the organizers, Sharp officials
said.

For DEC and Sharp, whose previous efforts in the notebook market have
been lackluster, the new systems will make Comdex "a show of comebacks,"
said a source familiar with both products.

"As a means of re-establishing itself in the notebook business, the new
Sharp systems are a nice, solid, first step," said the source. "DEC's
re-entry -- now, that's another animal. They've done a hell of a good
job."

An intriguing aspect of DEC's new lightweight system is its ergonomics,
sources said. For example, DEC engineers fit an 11-inch keyboard and a
9.5-inch display into a lean, light chassis, sources said. An external
floppy drive will snap into the bottom rear of the chassis, providing
disk access, but also tilting the unit for easier typing, they said.

The notebook will come with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows for Workgroups and
infrared communications built in.

At 4.5 pounds, the full-sized notebook will start at about $1,700 for a
system with the same configuration as the 3.5-pound system. The larger
unit sports a built-in floppy drive. Both machines have two PCMCIA Type
2 slots, or one Type 3 slot, sources said.

Like some of its competitors, Sharp has tapped Taiwan computer maker
Twinhead Corp. for its 6.2-pound PC-8900 and PC-8700. Sharp, however,
played a large part in designing its machine, said Rob Rosborough,
director of Sharp's computer products division, in Mahwah, N.J. The 8700
and 8900 sport Sharp-designed motherboards.

The infrared utility will enable 8700 and 8900 users to quickly transfer
data to and from any Wizard pocket organizer that's equipped with
infrared.

"This type of synergy is needed between [organizers] and PCs," said Dr.
David Stuchiner, director of emergency medicine for Central Maine
Medical Center, in Lewiston. "Cables are just inconvenient."

The PC-8900 will start at $4,700 with a 10.4-inch thin-film transistor
display, Intel Corp.'s 25/75MHz 486DX4, and 8M bytes of RAM (expandable
to 32M bytes). The 8700 will start at $3,300 with a 25/50MHz 486DX2 CPU.

Among other vendors introducing notebooks at Comdex, AT&T Global
Information Solutions will release a Pentium-based Globalyst 250; Zenith
Data Systems Inc. will unveil the first in a new line of Pentium-based
notebooks -- behind closed doors -- that sport a 75MHz Pentium, enhanced
video support, and built-in infrared; and Unisys Corp. will release a
75MHz Pentium notebook, sources said.

================================================================

Lotus, HP to enter broad technology, marketing pact

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Paula Rooney and John Dodge

As it begins shipping a version of Notes for HP/UX, Lotus Development
Corp. plans to outline with Hewlett-Packard Co. this week a broad joint-
marketing and development pact.

The agreement is anchored by a major OEM deal involving the bundling of
Notes 3.2 for HP/UX with HP's PA-RISC 9000 Series 800 enterprise servers
for six months, according to sources close to both companies. Also under
negotiation late last week was a plan to migrate HP's OpenMail installed
base over time to the LCS (Lotus Communications Server) strategy, the
sources said.

Lotus and HP officials declined to comment on the pact; however, HP
Communications Program Manager Andrew Ransom insisted that the company
would continue supporting and developing OpenMail.

The proposed accord calls for a transition plan to migrate users wanting
to move to an enterprise groupware environment to LCS. "OpenMail by
itself can't do that," said a source.

That migration would give Lotus an inside track to large OpenMail sites
such as Amoco Corp., BellSouth Corp., and Florida Power & Light. Amoco
recently signed up for more than 10,000 copies of OpenMail, said
officials at HP, in Palo Alto, Calif.

"OpenMail [is] but one -- albeit important and significant -- component"
of the Lotus-HP deal, one source said. "The relationship [is] far more
important than its [individual] components."

Moreover, HP has reportedly signed a $15 million deal for 70,000
cc:Mail, Notes, and Lotus SmartSuite licenses, according to a report
issued last week by the New York investment firm Furman Selz Inc.

Part of the agreement includes collaboration on network management.
Lotus this week will roll out a Notes network-management program, called
NotesView, that is tightly integrated with HP's OpenView network-
management platform. NotesView requires OpenView and accesses all Notes
servers, regardless of the operating system, sources said.

Large corporate customers of Notes and OpenView said a robust,
integrated tool like NotesView is important if Notes is going to be
considered a serious groupware solution for enterprise networks. "There
is a critical need for this. It's an important product," said Mike
Mandelbaum, a vice president of information technology at Chase
Manhattan Bank, in New York. "We can automate many of the things we do
manually and can look across all servers."

HP and Lotus are also working on technology that will synchronize the
directories of Notes and OpenMail, sources said.

Sources at Lotus' cc:Mail division, in Mountain View, Calif., said Lotus
is working on the next version of cc:Mail for Windows that will serve as
a front end to the OpenMail server. OpenMail lets users choose between
all leading LAN-based E-mail front ends.

It's important for Lotus to get a foot in the door with companies
downsizing from mainframes before archrival Microsoft Corp. ships its
own Exchange groupware server on Windows NT, analysts said.

"The reality is, if Lotus is going to extend the product beyond the
early adopters stage to mainstream use, the vendor is compelled to adopt
the standards companies have implemented," said Ann Palermo, an analyst
for International Data Corp., in Framingham, Mass.

================================================================

Intel to drive Pentium pricing down still further

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Neal Boudette

With Intel Corp. set to step up the pace of Pentium price cuts yet
again, corporate PC buyers can plan on seeing a barrage of bargain
desktop machines by the end of the first quarter.

So far this year, Intel has slashed Pentium prices at more than twice
the rate of drops on previous chip generations. The 90MHz Pentium chip
has fallen nearly 33 percent since the beginning of the year, compared
with typical 15 percent annual price reductions of early 486 chips.

But according to PC makers briefed by Intel, prices in the first half of
1995 will drop even faster.

For example, the high-end 100MHz Pentium is expected to tumble nearly 50
percent by May, a move that should drive the chip into $2,000 desktops,
they said.

Buyers will also see the 75MHz Pentium chip emerge in $1,500 desktops
and the 66MHz 486DX2 exist only in low-cost retail and consumer
machines, the PC makers said.

Prices could plunge even faster once Cyrix Corp. and Advanced Micro
Devices Inc. deliver competitive 586 chips, they said.

"There's still quite a bit of room for Intel to cut," said a product
manager at a major Intel customer. "It hasn't gotten ugly yet."

For corporate IS shops, the rapid price cuts present some challenging
budgeting issues.

"It's so volatile, how can you plan?" asked Bill Garber, president of
Intelink Inc., in Berrien Springs, Mich., a developer of software for
community newspapers.

Gary Gabriel, a PC manager at a major lighting company in Cleveland,
said his firm usually signs contracts that lock in discount prices for
six or 12 months. But with PC prices continuing to fall rapidly, the
company could be stuck with high prices well before the contract is up.

"That's a real concern," Gabriel said. "We could be buying a DX2/66 [PC]
at a price that would get us a good Pentium machine."

Other buyers said they plan to buy machines that are at the high end
today and, if prices fall, will boost the RAM configuration to 16M bytes
or add more storage.

"With the new software coming out, you can always use more memory," said
Pat Farrell, a consultant in Fairfax, Va.

Attention: You are now reading news which is expressly prepared for
ZiffNet members. If you redistribute this file, or any part therein, on
any online service, BBS, LAN, WAN or other electronic or print
distribution mechanism, you are in violation of U.S. copyright laws--and
are subject to subsequent penalties.

================================================================

PC firms embrace 75MHz Pentium

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Lisa DiCarlo

Pentium PCs should start arriving at corporate sites in volume early
next year as a raft of vendors gears up to release systems based on
Intel Corp.'s 75MHz Pentium chip.

Driven by aggressive CPU price cuts by Intel and standardization of the
3.3-volt architecture, the 75MHz desktop is likely to become the entry
point for corporate Pentium buyers, as 60MHz and 66MHz PCs using 5-volt
chips fade out before ever becoming volume products.

"The [60MHz Pentium] was clearly an interim chip, although Intel didn't
make public statements to that effect," said Ted Julian, an analyst at
International Data Corp., in Framingham, Mass.

Among the vendors that are pushing desktop systems based on the P75 are
Advanced Logic Research Inc., AT&T Global Information Solutions, Dell
Computer Corp., Gateway 2000 Inc., and IBM.

Dell will announce and ship next week 75MHz Pentium additions to its
Dimension and Optiplex lines, said sources close to the Austin, Texas,
company. The PCs, priced at about $2,399, will feature 8M bytes of RAM,
a 540M-byte hard drive, and a CD ROM drive, they said.

AT&T GIS next month will add a 75MHz Globalyst, said sources familiar
with the Dayton, Ohio, company's plans. Meanwhile, Gateway, of North
Sioux City, S.D., is shipping a $2,499 75MHz system, and IBM is expected
to begin shipping a P75 next week as part of its Series 700 line,
officials said. ALR, of Irvine, Calif., this week plans to announce
availability of a P75-based system, officials said.

Intel is making it difficult for PC makers to resist building P75
systems that use only 3.3 volts.

"From a technical standpoint, 3.3 volts and the smaller die size make it
easier for PC makers to work with. This is the true Pentium design,"
Julian said.

Users are also eager to work with the P75 architecture.

"The 3.3-volt architecture has quite an advantage [in] potential
upgradability," said Adam Sohn, senior manager at Grant Thornton, New
York. "It helps to have the same voltage on the chip."

Intel will cut the chip's price to about $300 in February, sources said.
Pricing will then be only slightly higher than the 60MHz and 66MHz 5-
volt Pentiums.

By mid-1995, prices for 75MHz desktops should fall to $1,500 to $2,000,
sources said.

================================================================

Pen is mighty in Win 95, WinPad

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Michael Moeller

For users of pen-based applications, there's good news and bad news from
Microsoft Corp.

The good news is that Windows 95, Microsoft's operating-system upgrade
due in the first half of next year, will include many of the pen
capabilities already planned for WinPad, its forthcoming operating
system for handheld portables.

The bad news is that WinPad (and the handhelds that will use it),
originally scheduled to ship early this year, will be delayed until the
second quarter of next year -- coinciding with the current planned
release of Windows 95, sources said.

Some of the major pen capabilities in Windows 95 include handwriting
recognition that uses artificial intelligence to learn a user's
handwriting, icon-based context menus for editing and insertion of text,
a Lens tool for zooming in or out when viewing text, and a virtual on-
screen keyboard that will provide word completion, according to Eric
Berman, lead program manager for handheld systems at Microsoft, in
Redmond, Wash.

Windows 95 will also include an ink library, allowing users to view and
manipulate electronic ink and text, regardless of whether they're
operating a pen-based device.

Pen features in Windows 95 will also include an OLE (Object Linking and
Embedding) 2.0 server that will allow any OLE-compliant application to
support ink annotations that can be passed on to any other Windows 95
user, Berman said.

Depending on how well the handwriting-recognition capabilities work, one
user said he'd consider utilizing it more in his company's applications.

"These improvements are intriguing and would go a long way toward
calming our fears about handwriting recognition," said Scott Arnold, an
advanced systems analyst at Pacific Gas & Electric Co., in San
Francisco. "We will look at the new features and see how good they are.

"But for field service workers, check boxes and scroll-down menus are
still the most reliable data-entry methods right now," Arnold said.

For editing, according to Microsoft's Berman, pen users can tap
"floating" menus to access such features as cut, copy, paste, and select
all, plus the ability to pop up an on-screen keyboard.

The Lens tool is a fixed button that users can touch to zoom in to or
out of a selection of text for pen or keyboard text input. The Boxed
Edit control recognizes one character per box and allows for correction
of characters either by overwriting a character or by tapping it to
display a list of alternate recognition possibilities.

In WinPad, Berman said, all handwriting recognition occurs in the Boxed
Edit control, whereas Windows 95 permits free-form handwriting
recognition. Both versions support third-party recognition applications,
such as Palm Computing Inc.'s Graffiti, and handwritten text can be
interchanged between the two environments.

The on-screen keyboard can be displayed as a QWERTY keyboard, a numeric
(calculator-style) keypad, or a telephone keypad. Additionally, the
QWERTY keyboard offers automatic word completion, so if a user types
"ab," the system pops up buttons with "about," "above," and "able" as
potential words.

Microsoft has "put a great deal of thought into the problems with ink
and handwriting, and has come up with some very intelligent solutions,"
said Martin Reynolds, director of technology assessment for Computer
Intelligence InfoCorp, in Santa Clara, Calif.

================================================================

PowerBuilder 4.0 is flexible, easy to use

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Bob Gallagher

PowerBuilder, the best-selling client/server application-development
tool, is known for its blend of performance, flexibility, and easy-to-
use non-procedural tools. Judging from PC Week Labs' look at a late beta
of Version 4.0, Powersoft Corp. has improved this winning combination,
hiking performance and simplifying development, yet retaining
flexibility.

Scheduled to ship next month, Version 4.0 should be worth a look by
PowerBuilder 3.0 users and others searching for a tool with which to
build enterprisewide applications.

In this vein, Powersoft has substantially changed PowerBuilder's 32-bit
architecture in preparation for cross-platform support: Macintosh
compatibility is due in the first quarter of next year, and Unix Motif
support is scheduled for the second quarter.

The reason Version 4.0 is so much faster than 3.0 at performing many
functions is that Powersoft has optimized the way the product handles
many of its tasks, including expression evaluation of data and data
sorts.

For example, we saw a sizable improvement in sort times: PowerBuilder
4.0 sorted 2,000 records in 8.24 seconds, more than 31 seconds faster
than 3.0's time of 39.55 seconds. However, despite PowerBuilder's
notable performance improvements, Version 4.0 will not ship with a
compiler. Gupta Corp.'s SQLWindows, PowerBuilder's closest competitor,
is the only 4GL client/server application-development tool in this
regard.

Easy Navigating

PowerBuilder 4.0 is also much easier to use than 3.0.

Using its new PowerTips messages, for example, we were able to navigate
around the interface a little quicker: PowerTips messages displayed the
name and function of each icon when we positioned the mouse pointer on
top of that icon.

PowerBuilder 4.0 will also ship with several new tutorial and sample
applications, such as the Personal Information Manager, that will
improve ease of use.

Developers building executive information systems for their users will
be able to supply them with data much easier by using PowerBuilder's new
Data Pipeline tool.

Data Pipeline, which resembles the PowerBuilder query tool, let us
schedule tasks that automatically replicated corporate data to
departmentalized data warehouses, using a variety of database servers,
including Oracle and Sybase.

PowerBuilder 3.0 is capable of producing nested reports. However, with
4.0, we accomplished this task without having to resort to the
PowerScript language. While in the report editor, we simply placed a
report object on the screen and specified the criteria for the report.

In addition to the $3,295 Enterprise for Windows edition we tested,
Powersoft will ship two other editions, the $2,295 Team/ODBC team
development edition and the $695 Desktop for Windows edition for
individual developers building single-user applications.

Powersoft will include the Advanced Developer Toolkit library of objects
and utilities with both the Enterprise and Team/ODBC editions. For
Desktop for Windows users, the tool kit will cost $595.

================================================================

NT for PowerPC moves to developers

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Mary Jo Foley

IBM's Power Personal Systems division has completed work on its
developers release of Windows NT 3.5 for PowerPC, but neither IBM nor
Microsoft Corp. is expected to begin selling the operating system to end
users before the first quarter of next year.

Officials at both IBM and Microsoft said more testing is needed before
the NT for PowerPC release will be ready for broad distribution. But
because there are so few PowerPC systems available, neither developers
nor users can start testing the system en masse.

IBM is expected to demonstrate the alpha version of OS/2 for PowerPC next week
at Comdex, and several smaller OEMs plan to demonstrate early versions of NT
for PowerPC at the show, sources said.

Internal politics at IBM may hold back NT for PowerPC, said sources
close to the company. IBM's Power Personal Systems' PowerPC Porting
Center in Kirkland, Wash., with Microsoft and Motorola Inc., ported NT
to the PowerPC. However, IBM's Personal Software Products division, in
Boca Raton, Fla., is hustling to field a version of OS/2 for PowerPC
that would compete directly with the NT version.

"All [IBM has] to do is flip a software switch to enable [NT] to run in
little-endian [byte-ordering] mode," said a source with a major OEM.
"But they've been unwilling to do this before they get OS/2 [for
PowerPC] out."

In October, IBM's PSP division released alpha code for OS/2 for PowerPC
to internal testers and to a limited number of development-tool vendors,
according to sources close to IBM.

The alpha version currently supports a character-based front end and
few, if any, device drivers. PSP officials have said they are attempting
to deliver a first beta of OS/2 for PowerPC in December, but most
industry watchers expect IBM to distribute beta code in the first
quarter.

"There's no OS/2 for PPC tool kit. There are no classes until December.
Why bother requesting the alpha? It would be like trying to work with
OS/2 Version 1.0," said John Navas, a principal with market researcher
The Navas Group in Dublin, Calif.

IBM plans to sell OS/2 for PowerPC both as a bundled and a retail
product, but will only bundle NT for PowerPC, except for special bids.
Microsoft will sell NT for PowerPC through the retail channel.

================================================================

RAM Mobile Data eases wireless file transfer

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Michael Moeller

RAM Mobile Data L.P. will introduce at Comdex next week software that
will enable users and developers to send any Windows-based file over a
wireless network without concern for communications protocols.

Called RAD-I/O, the application-development tool acts as an interface
between standard Windows applications, such as Microsoft Corp.'s Word,
and RAM Mobile Data's wireless packet radio network. Loaded onto
notebook PCs, the software acts as a wireless buffer hiding all
transmission protocols and communication setups between the applications
and the wireless network.

Reducing the complexity of sending and receiving files over a wireless
link would be a boon for Tim Johnson, service operations manager for
Hobart Corp., in Troy, Ohio.

"I think of myself as pretty bright, and working with X.25, wireless
modems, and wireless protocols really boggles the mind," said Johnson.
"This new application sounds like it would make life a whole lot
easier." Hobart plans to give field service representatives wireless
access to the corporate databases over the RAM network early next year.

RAD-I/O, created for RAM by Research In Motion of Waterloo, Ontario,
will let users send documents three ways.

The easiest method is by selecting any file and dragging and dropping it
onto the RAD-I/O icon, according to Mike Lazaridis, president of
Research In Motion. An address book then pops up and prompts the sender
to enter a user's name and RAM identification number. The file is
automatically converted into packets and sent over the RAM network to
its destination.

Files can also be transferred to preselected recipients using out-box
directories, with RAM identification numbers already programmed in.

A third option allows a user to create a command file that searches for
the specified file to be sent, finds the stored document in any
directory, and sends it out over the network.

"This is exactly the type of program that will speed the adoption of
wireless technology by users and developers," said Martin Levetin,
senior vice president of systems and technologies at RAM. "Intuitive and
easy-to-use applications are what is going to drive the use of wireless
technology."

RAD-I/O, scheduled to be available by the end of the year, will be
bundled free of charge with Ericsson GE Mobile Communications Inc.'s
Mobidem and Pia PCMCIA Type 3 modems, according to RAM officials, in
Woodbridge, N.J.

Current RAM Mobile users will also be able to buy the software directly
through RAM early next year. Pricing has not been set.

RAD-I/O will break open a major barrier to wireless computing, according
to Bill Frezza, president of Wireless Computing Associates, based in
Yardley, Pa.

"This is a big step forward for wireless computing by opening it up to
any application out there," said Frezza. "They [Research In Motion] are
the kings of clever when it comes to RAM and wireless technology."

================================================================

Early Acrobat adopters are taking a tumble

Rumor Central from PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Spencer F. Katt

When is a free deal a real pain in the wallet? Maybe when you just
coughed up $20K for something now being handed out for zippo.

Spence was trying to field phone calls while packing for Comdex when one
tale of woe caught the furry one's ear. Six months ago, an early Adobe
Acrobat adopter bought a 500-user license for Reader for about $20,000.
The product is now free. "Sounds like you're being penalized for being
an early proponent. Probably not the way to make you a long-term Adobe
fan," mused Spence.

Spence almost had to open up his old college algebra books for the next
tip. The tipster claimed that the Pentium FPU is returning erroneous
values for certain division operations, as compared to the 486. Rather
than pound on the calculator, Spence dialed Peter Pascal on the phone. A
couple of thousand computations later, Pascal confirmed the error: a
little less than 4 parts per billion, or about one-third of one
millionth of 1 percent, or 22 inches vs. the average distance from the
Earth to the Sun. Given Intel's claims for vastly improved FP accuracy
(as well as higher speed) in the move from 486 to Pentium, Pascal told
the Katt the error does have some significance, although you're not
likely to run into it out of a lab setting.

Meanwhile, Microsoft and IBM are working on product producing. As near
as Spence can figure out, IBM is sort of producing Warp, and Microsoft
might start selling betas of Win 95 in '94, but might not get around to
getting the shrink-wrap out until late '95. The latest rumor pushes the
ship date up to November. Also, key Windows 95 product manager Rich
Freedman is leaving the company and returning to New England, Spence
hears. One Redmond tipster claims that MS plans to bundle Delrina's
FormFlow product in Windows 95.

Rumors kept piling up in Spencer's in-box about mergers and
acquisitions. One tale had IBM doing a hostile bid for Novell. That
weirded out Big Red shares all last week. Funny thing, though -- the
stock price didn't move much, but was very actively traded.

Another rumor had Lotus being sold in pieces to Novell and AT&T. The
former Mrs. Bell gets Notes all to itself, and Novell (separately under
siege by IBM!) grabs the Lotus apps. Mr. Manzi, so turns the rumor mill,
has spent much time in Utah lately, while John Landry, its chief
technology officer, wants to cash out and retire. Other potential Lotus
suitors include Japan's Softbank.

Not satisfied with conquering the retail and home PC markets, Compaq is
now plotting ways to capture the kid market. This is no joke. The
Houstonians are working on a new PC for kids, and it's called Mr. PC-
Head. No word yet if it will use an "Oh No, Mr. Bill" user interface
from Microsoft or a Peter Pentium processor from Intel.

Would Spence shamelessly plug the Sixth Annual Micrografx Chili For
Children Cook-Off, an event scheduled for Tuesday night, Nov. 15, during
Comdex, at the Thomas And Mack Center from 6 to 11:30 p.m, with
entertainment by Willie Nelson? No way, unless he sings "Headed for the
OS Corral." Nor would Spence shill Outlook '94, the one-day 10-year
anniversary conference for Chicago integrator Lante, on Dec. 1, where
else but in the Windy City.

Have a tip? Call Rumor Central at [phone]; On MCI, It's SKATT; on
CompuServe, use 72631,107; on the Internet, it's
[e-mail]; or try ZiffNet'S PC Week Forum on CompuServe,
or FAX the KATT at [phone].

================================================================

Compaq, DEC, Dell, IBM push servers to PCI

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Stephanie LaPolla

The menu of PCI-based servers will become more varied in upcoming months
when four of the top PC server companies open the floodgates with new
single- and multiprocessor systems.

New entries from Compaq Computer Corp., Digital Equipment Corp., and IBM
will join the parade of new servers led by Dell Computer Corp.'s
announcement this week of its first Peripheral Component Interconnect-
based, SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) unit.

The servers' PCI support will deliver faster throughput speeds for users
and the convenience of connecting to PCI-standard peripherals. However,
the transition period is of some concern.

"It's 1987 all over again, when IBM went from ISA to Micro Channel on
its PS/2s, and none of the boards were transferable, so we had to
reinvest in new PCs or buy devices and adapters," said Tim Flaherty, who
is on the advanced technology team at Becton Dickinson & Co., a medical-
equipment supplier in Franklin Lakes, N.J.

However, the transition is "investment protection if the whole industry
goes to PCI," Flaherty added.

Dell's PowerEdge SP-2 and XE-2, starting at $6,957 and $9,690,
respectively, support two 90MHz or 100MHz Pentium processors. The SP
model includes 16M bytes of RAM, a 1G-byte SCSI hard drive, and 256K
bytes of cache; the XE comes stocked with 32M bytes of RAM, a 2G-byte
SCSI drive, and 512K bytes of cache. Both include integrated PCI SCSI
and PCI slots.

On the heels of Dell's announcement, Compaq next week will unveil a new
version of its ProSignia server that supports the PCI architecture and a
90MHz Pentium chip. Compaq has built the new model from the ground up in
order to optimize the PCI bus for peak performance by including some
internally developed technology, said sources familiar with the Houston-
based company's plans.

The ProSignia, which will include a 32-bit network interface card for
Novell Inc.'s NetWare and integrated PCI and PCI SCSI slots, will offer
higher processing power than is currently available, but Compaq wants to
keep the price close to that of the ProSignia, which is priced at $8,435
for the 60MHz Pentium model. Compaq officials declined comment.

DEC, of Maynard, Mass., will jump into the ring in the first week of
December when it augments its DECpc XL server line with a series of
PCI/EISA-based models that range from entry-level to high-end systems.
DEC's new Prioris family will include Intel Corp. processors that span
speeds from 66MHz 486/DX to 100MHz Pentium, sources said.

The new servers will support hot-swappable SCSI-2 drives, up to 512K
bytes of memory, and up to 12 expansion slots on the high-end servers.

The single-processor servers will be priced to compete with Compaq's
$5,999 ProLiant 1000. However, sources expect SMP models of DEC's PC
servers to emerge in the first quarter of next year -- around the same
time the IBM Personal Computer Co. unveils its PC Server 300 and PC
Server 700 PCI-based SMP servers, sources said.

The Somers, N.Y., company's low-end PC Server 300 will offer support for
two 90MHz or 100MHz Pentium processors and five PCI/EISA expansion
slots. At the enterprise server level, the PC Server 700 will hold as
many as six 90MHz or 100MHz Pentium chips and has up to eight PCI/Micro
Channel shared slots, according to sources.

IBM and DEC officials declined to comment.

================================================================

SQL Server 95 enters beta

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Anne Knowles

Microsoft Corp.'s SQL Server 95, the code name for its next-generation
server database, entered beta testing last week, according to several
users participating in the program.

The beta includes several new features not demonstrated before,
according to Dan Basica, product manager at Microsoft, in Redmond, Wash.
Among those are changes to Transact-SQL, Microsoft's version of SQL, to
make it adhere to ANSI-standard declarative referential integrity, along
with the ability to pass table and column names to stored procedures,
use temporary stored procedures, and automatically generate stored
procedures at startup.

However, the systems-management console, code-named Starfighter, is not
included in this initial beta release, sources said.

Basica, who maintained that Starfighter is a key part of the first beta
shipment, would not comment on whether the product had shipped to beta
customers, although he said SQL Server 95 was on track to enter testing
before the end of the year. Microsoft has said the product will become
generally available sometime in 1995.

Starfighter comprises features found in SQL Server's administration
tool, SQL Monitor (which was developed by Microsoft's former database
partner, Sybase Inc.), and new, Microsoft-developed features such as
drag-and-drop replication management and the ability to set up a group
of servers and manage it, Basica said.

"This will close the gap between 4.2 and System 10 and definitely give
Microsoft something to brag about," said a software developer who
requested anonymity.

================================================================

Lotus, Novell mull suite collaboration

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Jane Morrissey

As Microsoft Corp. continues to steamroll the competition in software
suites, the time may have come for Lotus Development Corp. and Novell
Inc. to join forces or be flattened.

Industry sources said high-level talks are under way that over time
could allow users to combine the best of Lotus' SmartSuite and Novell's
PerfectOffice. Executives from Lotus and Novell's WordPerfect
Applications Group denied that any discussions are under way, but left
the door open to working together in the future.

"A lot has to do with the next year, how well we do against Microsoft,"
said Mark Calkins, Novell's vice president and general manager of the
Business Applications Division, in Orem, Utah. "If we find that we're
not as successful as we'd like, that may be an option we might want to
look at with Lotus."

Given that Novell's PerfectOffice won't ship until next month, sources
said Lotus is more receptive about potential cooperation, considering
its disappointing SmartSuite sales, particularly in the last quarter.
Recent sales figures from Dataquest Inc. show that Microsoft's first-
half 1994 revenues from its Office suite beat out the combined sales of
both rivals and is continuing at a steady clip.

"I think that if you look at the market, it's hard to support three
suites," said a source with Lotus in Cambridge, Mass. Although nothing
with Novell is under serious consideration, "anything is possible," said
the source.

Lotus sources acknowledged that there is considerable customer pressure
to provide tighter links to WordPerfect beyond being able to automate
tasks across SmartSuite and PerfectOffice.

"I'd like to see some emphasis on Lotus-WordPerfect integration in the
future," said Ed Dombek, information center consultant with Trustmark
Insurance Co., in Lake Forest, Ill. "WordPerfect has implied that this
might be coming."

While Novell Chairman Robert Frankenberg is more apt to strike deals
with rivals than his predecessor, Ray Noorda, Novell officials said they
prefer to go it alone in suites -- at least for now.

One key differentiator of PerfectOffice over other suites is the Select
CD ROM version, which will allow users to mix and match applications,
whether from Novell or third parties. Select was designed as a mechanism
to distribute complementary, not competing, products, but it could be a
natural evolution for Lotus to slide in 1-2-3 or its entire suite and
co-market it with Novell.

Lotus has already indicated its willingness to this type of setup with
its Approach/Lotus 1-2-3 bundle, which uncouples Ami Pro from the suite.
Tighter links between Lotus and Novell is "the obvious, logical next
step," said Chris LeTocq, an analyst with Softtracks, a market
researcher in Los Altos, Calif.

`Mutually Beneficial'

"They both realize it's mutually beneficial," said Karl Wong, principal
analyst for PC software and workgroup computing at Dataquest, in San
Jose, Calif.

Other analysts said the scenario is premature since PerfectOffice has
yet to ship. "I don't think Novell is going to throw in the towel
without entering the ring," said Mary McCaffrey, an analyst with Alex.
Brown & Sons, in New York.

Additional reporting by Ted Smalley Bowen

================================================================

IBM revamps voice efforts with new Windows software

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by Erica Schroeder

IBM, bringing some order to its disparate voice-recognition efforts,
will announce at Comdex next week its first Windows dictation product
along with PCMCIA-compatible products that make it easier to add voice
support to current systems.

The $1,099 Windows release, called VoiceType Dictation, is based on the
technology used in IBM's current OS/2 offering. The software provides a
30,000-word vocabulary and can learn new words through the context of
the document.

The Type 2 PCMCIA add-ons provide the hardware necessary to process
speech, according to IBM officials.

IBM is also offering a new navigation product, called VoiceType Control
II, bundled with its PCs. The software allows a user to control Windows
and OS/2 applications by talking to the PC.

IBM has abandoned its previous navigation tool, the $99 IBM Continuous
Speech System, which it licensed from Dragon Systems Inc. The VoiceType
Dictation software will now be sold only bundled with IBM's $999 ISA and
Micro Channel adapters as well as the upcoming PCMCIA version of the
product.

The moves are part of the Armonk, N.Y., computer giant's reorganization
of its speech-recognition products along two lines: software that can
recognize "normal" continuous speech for commanding and controlling a PC
and applications, and higher-end products that support dictation.

IBM officials admitted that the previous approach, which focused heavily
on OS/2 and technology acquired from other vendors, was a muddled
strategy.

"[Chairman Louis] Gerstner came in and immediately said that approach
was wrong. He's a real believer that [speech] is a foundational element
in where computing is going, and we've got to make sure we have a
cohesive strategy," said Howard Fields, sales and marketing manager at
IBM. "We've got a commitment to OS/2, but you've got to be on Windows to
play in this market."

Windows support should help IBM address some cost issues for companies
implementing voice-recognition systems.

"Folks here think it's going to be a great leap beyond the keyboard and
the mouse and will reduce the intimidation in using a PC," said Robert
Koehler, a developer at a large financial company in Chicago. "There are
ease-of-use questions here, but there also are dollar issues."

================================================================

Mergers can bring perilous tides for IS

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by John Dodge

The glow an IS executive feels after signing a big deal -- say, a
10,000-user license for Lotus Notes -- must dim from worrying if the
vendor and its key people will stick around. In today's business
climate, it may not be a question of if, but how long, the same people
or company logo will stay in place.

No information service or product provider is immune from a predator
seeking to cover a strategic flank, wring more value out of a prize
catch, or fatten the bottom line. Even companies with impossibly big
market caps can be broken up and sold off in pieces. Breadth and bulk
are in. Small is out, at least in an enduring sense. Quickly covering
exposed flanks is the big-company mind-set. Key technologies are
commanding huge premiums.

Sometimes a merger simply begets another. Cisco edged out IBM in nabbing
Kalpana partly in response to the merger of SynOptics and Wellfleet.
Microsoft bought Intuit, prompting Novell to pick up MS Money. The 1994
acquisitions list is lengthy: Novell/WordPerfect, AT&T/McCaw,
Symantec/Central Point, Seagate/Palindrome, and on and on. IS executives
bemoan the loss of a trusted contact who could answer that tough futures
or technical question in the middle of the night (one IS acquaintance of
mine lost his lo cal Ericsson contact, but he isn't complaining about
that free trip to Sweden to glimpse into the future of his employer's
voice/data PBX).

Time is on the side of further consolidation. It's eat, get big, or be
eaten. One such company with a key technology is Lotus. One day Lotus is
a predator. The next day, it's chum.

The difference between predator and tasty meal in Lotus' case depends on
how quickly Notes ramps up. Lotus needs cash, bulk, financial
regularity, and a much, much bigger Notes installed base, big enough to
keep Microsoft an also-ran -- if it ever gets into the groupware server
business with something other than vaporlock. Lotus' apps business is
pooping out fast, and Notes needs to fill the void plus reach critical
market-share mass.

Lotus' deal with HP is as significant for who the partner is as for the
potential business volume. With a stellar reputation among customers, HP
has long-standing corporate accounts that Microsoft or even IBM would
kill for. Moreover, Microsoft, the biggest threat to Lotus, especially
in the desktop applications business, has no near- or intermediate-term
answer to Notes.

Like Novell, Lotus must lower the constant noise regarding its possible
dismemberment. Or at least get customers to push out their time frame
when they ask the question: "Do you think Lotus will be around X number
of years?"

How much does the Law of the Jungle affect your buying decisions?
Inquiring minds want to know: Send me your comments over the Internet
([e-mail]), CompuServe (72241,303), or MCI Mail (239-
3520).

================================================================

Breaking News

From PC Week for November 7, 1994 by PC Week Staff

NetWare, UnixWare Set On Converging paths

By Andy Patrizio

HILTON HEAD, S.C. -- Novell Inc. plans one more major release of NetWare
and UnixWare before starting to meld both systems using a common
microkernel in late 1996, said company officials at a briefing here.

Novell, of Provo, Utah, will license a kernel from Chorus Systems Inc.,
of Beaverton, Ore., said UnixWare users familiar with the plan. While
Novell officials have said that the Chorus microkernel was the likely
selection for UnixWare, they declined to confirm that a final decision
has been made.

Some UnixWare customers have been urging Novell to select the Mach Unix
microkernel developed by Carnegie Mellon University. That microkernel is
being used in OSF/1.

Novell is scheduled to release UnixWare Version 2.0 in January, said
Robert Frankenberg, chairman and CEO. NetWare 4.1 is scheduled to ship
in December.

NetWare and UnixWare will start to converge with the next upgrades due
in late 1995, Frankenberg said. UnixWare 2.1 will feature Novell
Directory Services and Novell Distributed Management Services, he said.

Unified PReP Platform To Debut

IBM and Apple this week will formally announce a unified PowerPC
hardware platform based on chip sets from IBM, Apple, and Motorola.

Industry sources said Apple's chip, code-named Cuda, contains system
logic that will enable the Macintosh operating system to run on the new
platform without major alterations. An IBM chip, code-named Coral,
provides logic for the operating systems now supported by its PReP
PowerPC design. Motorola's Eagle chip set provides Peripheral Component
Interconnect support.

Microsoft Signs Up TV Partners

Microsoft last week announced partnerships for its forthcoming
interactive broadband network, code-named Iceberg.

The new partners include Hewlett-Packard and NEC as set-top-box
providers; NEC as a server provider; Deutsche Telekom, Telstra of
Australia, and US West Communications as network providers; and Alcatel,
Andersen Consulting, NTT Data Communications Systems, and Olivetti as
systems integrators.

Apple To Open Newton to Developers

To answer Newton developer demands for open programming utilities, Apple
will release in 1995 a series of development tool kits -- including a
compiler and a Windows-based Newton Development Kit.

Microsoft Licenses MapInfo Technology

Microsoft will announce this week a licensing agreement with MapInfo to
incorporate mapping technology in Microsoft Excel and other Office
applications.

Lotus To Bolster Notes Imaging, API

Lotus is readying two upgrades to its Lotus Notes: Document Imaging
application.

Version 2.5, which will ship next week, features an optical character
recognition option, improved storage algorithms, and integration with
other imaging systems. Version 3.0, expected to go into beta next week,
adds image compression, support for black-and-white and 24-bit color
images, and the ability to separate the elements of images to reduce
storage space, sources said. It is due in the first quarter of 1995.

Separately, Version 2.0 of Edge Research's HiTest Notes API goes into
early beta test this week. Version 2.0 includes support for an
unannounced Notes C++ API, sources said.

Briefly Noted:

DEC next week will deliver its Gigaswitch ATM.

Novell is not expected to ship its Ferret network browser, code-named
Corsair, until early next year.

TopSpeed, formerly Clarion Software, last week began shipping the first
Windows version of the Clarion development tool.

The technology for the new IBM messaging system, to be unveiled next
week, will be based on the company's MQSeries middleware, acquired from
Apertus Technologies.

NEC this week is expected to introduce dual-processor 90MHz and 100MHz
Pentium desktops.

ALR this week will announce a dual-processor-enabled 90MHz Pentium
minitower priced at $2,995. A second processor will cost $1,495.

Novell last week unveiled NetWare Telephony Services 2.0, due to go into
beta test in January.

Microsoft announced a utility for Windows 95 that will automatically
play CD ROMs when they are inserted in a PC.

AST last week signed an agreement to preload NetWare on its servers.

Chaplet will release the iLuFA 350 Ultra-Subnotebook next week with
street prices starting at $1,699.

Compaq is now bundling an external floppy drive with its Contura Aero
subnotebook free of charge.

Xerox this week will announce print-server software for client/server
networks.

The Justice Department is expected to issue a "second request" for
information on Microsoft's agreement to buy Intuit.