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This transcript is provided by GEnie and GEnie's OS/2 Roundtable,
The premier INDEPENDENT OS/2 interest group!
You can sign up for GEnie by calling 1-800-638-9636 (USA)
This transcript can be freely distributed as long as this
preamble is not removed and the text within remains un-altered!
--------------------------------
Welcome to the GEnie OS/2 Roundtable Real Time Conference!
The premier INDEPENDENT OS/2 interest group!
Brought to you by Jeff Elkins (ELKINS),
Brady Flowers (BRADY),
and Charlie Strom (STROM)
OS/2 R/T SYSOPs
With Assistant SYSOP's ++-------------------------+
Doug Robison (D.ROBISON), ++-------------------------+____
Stewart Hyde (S.HYDE), | | | BB |
Rick Ruhl (RICKER), | Ride the OS/2 wave | |____|
Steven Tower (TOWER), | |#|
Brian Withnell (BW), | into the future! | |
Kevin Royalty (K.ROYALTY) | | |
+--------------------------+
OS/2 is a registered | RTC |
trademark of IBM Corporation | LIB |
^^^^^^^
OS/2 Roundtable mail address: OS2$.
The OS/2 Roundtable is independent and is not affiliated with
IBM Corporation.
==============================================================
Some procedural notes: The room is "Listen Only" mode so you'll have
to use the "/RAI" command to request to ask a question; we'll take
questions in the order they are requested. You'll be given the chance
to ask one follow-up question after your initial one.
There are usually more questions than we have time for at these events
so, please be kind to the other attendees and don't try to "sneak in"
four of five questions into one by using the word "and" a lot. :)
After you finished typing a question or an answer type the letters "GA"
(for Go Ahead) so that the others will know you're done.
==============================================================
John Soyring, Director of Software Development Programs for IBM's
Personal Software Products Division is with us tonight for a special
question and answer session.
OS/2 has really exploded in recent months, and John is going to fill
us in on recent developments and long-term plans for OS/2, Workplace OS,
and other related software. This promises to be an important and
exciting event.
==============================================================
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> John, do you have any opening comments?
<[John] PRESS-13> Brady, thank you. It is indeen a please to be here if you can
bear with my slow typing. Much of the success of OS/2 is due to the involvement
of individual users worldwide who have helped us design, test and marketing of
OS/2. Most of these interactions with users have been via cyberspace. That is
why these conferences are so important to us. We are very pleased with the
recent success associated with OS/2. PC Computing, Byte and others have
awarded OS/2 their top product award.
Our service organization recently was awarded the trophy as the best service
organization. And now after several months of being number 2 or 3 on Ingram
Micros best selling software chart, OS/2 2.1 has leaped into the #1 position
ahead of Windows 3.1. I love it!!!
<[John] PRESS-13> Any specific questions?
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Jeff Elkins has the first RAised hand..
<[Jeff] ELKINS> Welcome to GEnie, John! I'm happily running the 2.11 beta. Can
we expect fixes and patches like we saw with the March 2.1 Beta? GA
<[John] PRESS-13> Thanks Jeff for the welcome. When you say the 2.11 beta, I
assume you mean that you are running the beta of the first Service Pak for
OS/2 2.1. This Service Pak process will be similar to the Service Pak process
we had for OS/2 2.0, but we are doing much more beta testing of the Service Pak
before we release it to the general public. For those who do not know the IBM
terminolgy, Service Pak is a set of bug fixes. GA.
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Folloup question Jeff?
<[Jeff] ELKINS> This fall has been a great month for OS/2 apps. C Set++,
Realizer, Ami Pro...One exception was been Word Perfect's defection from the
OS/2 market. Is WP a dead issue for OS/2? What's your take on this controversy?
(especially in regards to their new CEO) GA
<[John] PRESS-13> h I could say more.
<[John] PRESS-13> GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> I think we missed some of that John... be careful about
lines longer than 256 characters..
<[John] PRESS-13> What is the max length for s line here?
<[John] PRESS-13> Okay. I will retype several notes. sigh
<[Jeff] ELKINS> we got "I could say more" :)
<[John] PRESS-13> Jeff, I personally have spent a great deal of time with the
entire board of directors of WordPerfect, including Ad Rietveld, the new
president and CEO. I have spent a great deal of time discussing with
WordPerfect their product development plan. WordPerfect continues to develop
their server and gateway products on OS/2. In fact, they tell me that Office
4.0 for OS/2 handles four times the load as its DOS-based sister. As for
client applications, like the WordPerfect wordprocessor, I fully understand
what WordPerfect needs to do to provide a highly competitive next generation
of products. We are working with WPCorp to ensure that OS/2 can easily support
the next generation of products. However, since this is a WordPerfect product
plan, I am not at liberty to disclose their confidential plans. Wish I could
say more. Bottom line: WP is important to us and we intend to keep working
with them. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Okay. Thanks John. Before we get to the next question,
Kathy Fanning has a doorprize to give away. :) Kathy?
<KFANNING> The first person to /SEN me the right answer to the following
question gets a tshirt - the next 3 get trinkets.......
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Oooh.. trinkets...
<KFANNING> How old was our esteemed guest, John Soyring, last week?
<[chas] STROM> sysops need not apply:)
<KFANNING> Paul was first; Kimberly, Jack.Moore, and Kevin were 2-4. Congrats!
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Congrats everyone! Okay.. next question is from Mr.
DevTech! Evan, you're up..
<[John] PRESS-13> Booo Kathy. Did I ask your age <g>?
<[Evan] TILRYTHRAN> John, would you please enlighten us as to what is happening
with OS/2 for Windows? It's a very exciting product, and I'm sure we'd all be
very interested. [As an aside, I was just at an Electronics Boutique in a
nearby mall this weekend, and they had a copy of OS/2 for Windows, in the
Windows Applications section. It was spine-out, and they didn't know they had
it, but both conditions were corrected by the time I left. <g>] [GA]
<[John] PRESS-13> Evan, thanks for correcting the problem at Electronics
Boutique. I wonder who turned the OS/2 for Windows box spine out? Seriously,
OS/2 for Windows (aka Ferengi) is selling like hot cakes ...
<[John] PRESS-13> I just reviewed the sales figures this morning and I was
delighted with the retail sales of OS/2 for Windows. Sales of this product are
what caused the jump from third position to first on the Ingram Micro best
selling software chart. In fact, the CD-ROM version of OS/2 (and OS/2 for
Windows) is now in the number two position is sales of CD-ROM titles only
trailing the game 7th Guest. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Follow-up question, Evan?
<[Evan] TILRYTHRAN> [That's GREAT news, John! I don't suppose that you could
tell us what the publicly available figures are for sales, so far?] My follow
up question deals with the ServicePak beta for 2.1. Is it also supposed to be
used with OS/2 for Windows, and is there any final time-frame for its GA
release? [GA]
<[John] PRESS-13> Evan, sorry, but sales figures remain confidential -- as in
the past ...As far as the Service Pak, it applies to the full-pack of OS/2
2.1. I will have to check about the Service Pak for OS/2 for Windows. Our
goal is to keep them both at the same service level. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Thanks, everyone, for remembering to type "GA" when you're
done with a question or answer. It helps keep things moving along! Next up,
Ray Chuang...
<[Ray (DCS)] R.CHUANG> John> Do you think IBM will be successful in getting
OS/2 2.1 "preloaded" on machines from the large clone manufacturers like
Compaq, Dell, Gateway 2000, Zeos, and IBM's own AMBRA division as a "no extra
charge" option....as a substitute for the DOS 6.x/Windows 3.1 combination?
GA
<[John] PRESS-13> Raymond, recent sales of OS/2 2.1 are catching the eyes of PC
manufacturers. Though we already have deals signed with many manufacturers,
today most install OS/2 when ordered. Now, we are getting more inquires
(including from the PC company) about pre-loading Ferengi (oops, I mean OS/2
for Windows) ...in addition to the already installed DOS and Windows. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Follow-up question, Ray?
<[Ray (DCS)] R.CHUANG> Yes. Will future versions of OS/2 2.x _fully_ take
advantage of the Pentium chip features, notably the virtual interrupt
capability and other advanced features? GA
<[John] PRESS-13> Ray, as you know, OS/2 2.1 was the first operating system
released that exploited the Pentium chip. The Virtual DOS Machine (aka
Win-OS/2) code was compiled using the WATCOM compiler with Pentium
optimizations set. ...We intend in future releases to continue to take further
advantage of Pentium features -- especially since I am thinking about getting a
Pentium system for home use <g>. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Next question is from Stu Hyde.. we'll do another trivia
question immediately after that.
<[Jeff] ELKINS> no sysops!
<[MagicCarpet] S.HYDE> Give me some time to write this one..
<[John] PRESS-13> Glad to read that someone else also types slowly. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Why don't we do that trivia question while Stu's typeing
(You're ineligible anyway Stu :)
<KFANNING> John, you're faster than David Barnes was!
<[MagicCarpet] S.HYDE> I am wondering about the single input queue problem, I
have heard that the multiable queue solution (NT) is not desirable, what is
going to happen for OS/2. How about seperating Mouse and Keyboard. GA
<KFANNING> Okay, I can do that!
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Ok.. trivia after Stu (Plan "A") :)
<[John] PRESS-13> Stu, good question. First, OS/2 and NT both have a single
input queue for the system. The difference is, NT dispatches input events from
the system queue to other queues on an asynchronous basis. OS/2 also has
multiple input queues to which the system queue synchronously dispatches input
events ...So the difference is not multiple versus single input queue.
Rather the difference is how (synchronous versus asynchronous) the input events
are dispatched from the primary queue to other input queues in the system...
The original OS/2 design was done in the fashion of Windows 2.x and 3.x. With
the Workplace OS project, we have an opportunity to use asyncronous
dispatching. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Very informative, John! Follow-up question, Stu?
<[MagicCarpet] S.HYDE> Is keyboard the main problem, or does the Mouse come
into problem..if mouse was in a seperate queue then the user can select a
control panel and kill the hogging task and system will be find...Also
maybe you could think about virtualizing inputs for each session poll for
events...just some ideas that come to my mind on the problem. GA
<[John] PRESS-13> Brady, neither the keyboard nor the mouse input really cause
the hang problems in OS/2 associated with the input queue. What is happening is
that four messages are exchanged in the synchronous exchange ... if the
application hangs on one of these messages exchanges, it locks up the input
queue for a while. However, the synchronous makes for some easier programming.
The events are already virtualized. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Okay.. another trivia question from Ms. Fanning and then a
question from Keith Morrison directly afterwards..
<KFANNING> This time I have a book for the first correct responder to /SEN me
the correct answer... What product won PC Computing's MVP award last month at
Fall Comdex -for the second year in a row?
<RICKER> (do a /sen 22 <answer>)
<[John] PRESS-13> Thanks for the correction Stu. GA
<KFANNING> The winner of the book is Ray (DCS); Eric, Kimberly, and PROF.MARK
get the trinkets..... John was about 10th :)! COngratulations all.
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Kathy must be deluged...
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Okay.. thanks Kathy. Keith is next with a question...
<[|<eith] K.MORRIS5> What is the word on COLORS/PALLETE? Many of my co-workers
see PCTools for WIN and say YEA then they see the UGLY OLD GRAY and say NO! If
they use OS/2 they like it. I'm talking about the PSYCHOLOGICAL impact.....
OS/2 is mature enought now to need the "SLICK" stuff. The users need to see
stuff to make them say I NEED THIS NOW!!!!! I've read that "MANAGEMENT" at
IBM stopped some fancy ICONS and stuff. Is this true? I personally can
CHANGE the WPS, but new users are usually STUCK with the GRAY until they
LEARN OS/2.... GA
<[John] PRESS-13> Keith, a great deal of study by psychologist went into the
OS/2 color selections. The colors were selected for people who spend many hours
per day looking at a screen. The OS/2 colors caused the least eye fatigue. ...
It was not management that stopped any fancy icons and color selections.
Rather, it was the technical people who stopped the suggestions for
fancy colors and fancy icons. A group of people, including managers (ie, me)
favored fancy colors and wild icons. We were over ruled by the non-management
team that owned the job of picking the right colors and icons for the market
segments we tareted ....Now, for a different market segment (ie, home game
users), we could very well offer a special brand of OS/2 with colors and icons
suitable to them. As the PC Company has done, you will see more branding from
IBM. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Speaking as a color-blind person, the default colors are
VERY "seeable"! Follow-up question, Keith?
<[|<eith] K.MORRIS5> GET A NEW TECH TEAM! Also, IFS should have an HPFS with
STACKED data.... FROM IBM! (Gee look at all the neat stuff in DOS 6.2... blah
blah blah) how about it? <Gee, how do we ALL get fancy OS/2 T-Shirts? I live in
PODUNK USA.><G> GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> I beleive there's an 800 number to call for OS/2
merchandise...
<[John] PRESS-13> Keith, when you say STACKED data, do you mean Stac
Electronics Stacker stacked data? GA
<[|<eith] K.MORRIS5> Something like that... I was thinking that an IFS could
very easily
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Okay .. next up is Chris Rehmi...
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Oops.. sorry Keith
<[Chris] C.REHM1> ???
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Didn't you have your hand raised Chris?
<[Chris] C.REHM1> Yes, but I believe K was answering a question from John.
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> sorry... back on track :)
<[|<eith] K.MORRIS5> Kind of like STACK ELEC. But from IBM.
An IFS=SOMETHING GA
<[John] PRESS-13> Keith, we are working with several other parties on
additional compression products. In fact, a Dutch company just announced a new
compression product for OS/2 this evening. Contact Nico de Vries for info. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Okay.. now Chris...
<[Chris] C.REHM1> My question, John, is about drivers. from a corporate
standpoint...I have a lot of machines in a lot of different places and I
can't just download...drivers for each user who tacks on a new Magna-Zomm.
What can I look forward to to supply those drivers. I know the hardware
vendor should, but they don't and I still want to install OS/2.
Cheer me up. GA
<[John] PRESS-13> Chris, we are working closely with all of the major component
and product manufacturers. During the coming months, you will likely see device
driver support on OS/2 probably as complete as on Windows 3.11 -- if not more
so. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Follow-up question, Chris?
<[Chris] C.REHM1> Do you mean, the vendors will start supplying them with the
hardware, or that OS/2 will come with drivers for as much hardware? and how
long do you mean by "coming months", will there be an upgraded release with
the new plethora of drivers? GA
<[John] PRESS-13> Chris, due to cost considerations of including diskettes in
the OS/2 shrinkwrap, we intend to only provide a competitive set of device
drivers in the shrinkwrap. However, with CD-ROM technology, we may include
many more device drivers and other neat stuff on the CD-ROM. I strongly
encourage all to acquire a CD-ROM drive for their PC's. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Okay. Time for another trivia question!
<KFANNING> Another tshirt for the first to /SEN 22 me the right answer.....
<KFANNING> What position does OS/2 hold on Ingram Micro's Best Selling Software
chart?
<KFANNING> Congrats to Chris for knowing it's #1!!! Keith, Kimberly, and Lee
were 2-4....
<[John] PRESS-13> Kathy, did you get my answer to the trivia question first. Of
course, I am not a sysop and I do need a t-shirt <g>
<KFANNING> Kimberly will have the largest collection of trinkets after tonight!
<KFANNING> John, nope you were about 5th - I'll give you a tshirt anyway for
doing this RTC tonight!
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> We're going to take a short, 5-minute intermission to let
the sysop and speaker stand up for a minute.. /SEN among yourselves :)
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Okay.. room will be public for five minutes
** <[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Room is now listen-only.
<[Jeff] ELKINS> John, How will MMPM be expanded under 2.2? I wand system sounds
extended to the object level. i.e. launch a program,play a WAV. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Oh oh .. mea culpa
<[John] PRESS-13> Thanks Brady. Are my last two answers to Jeff lost? GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Sorry .. I neglected to let you talk :) GA
<[John] PRESS-13> Okay ...
<[John] PRESS-13> Jeff, I have not looked closely at the details of our plan
for enhanced MMPM/2 support in OS/2 2.2. Sorry, but I do not have an answer for
your question. GA
<[Jeff] ELKINS> How is optimization for 4 meg going? GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Everyone ... I just had a small software failure here..
bear with me while I get back on track...
<[John] PRESS-13> Jeff, our working set size reduction work (what you describe
as 4 MB optimization) is going well. We are repacking the code such that for
the popular applications, only the most frequently executied instructions
are paged into memory. This repackaging of the code will help us get to a
smaller memory requirement for entry level configurations and it should
provide a performance boost to all. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> I've lost my (software based) list of raised hands but I
still have the paper one... Paul (Stenhenge) is up next...
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> (I mean Stonehenge <g>)
<[Paul] STONEHENGE> John, glad to see IBM has a presence here on GEnie. I'm
a small Windows developer who doesn't use OS/2 but is taking notice of
Ferengi. I also think IBM has THE best Human Factors folks anywhere and
that is your great competitive advantage. I'm getting confused by the
proliferation of API's under Windows and am curious how SOM compares to
OLE? It might be simpler. GA
<[John] PRESS-13> Paul, one of the trade magazines this week equated SOM to
OLE. They are wrong. OLE is an application level mechanism for exchanging
information between existing procedural applications and viewing the results
embedded in the client application. On the other hand, the System Object Model
is a truly object-oriented means of two objects locating one another and
communicating between the two objects.SOM has two key advantages:
(1) it offers language independence -- that is, two objects may be written
in different languages, yet you can now wire them together via SOM and
they can talk;
(2) SOM allows companies to protect their intellectual assets by allowing
objects to be shipped in binary, executable format. Languages today,
like C++ really require you to ship souce for objects. Paul, since you
write apps for Windows, you may be pleased to know that we will soon be
releasing SOM for Windows into a beta test (news here on GEnie). This
will allow you to create objects which will be readily portable across
multiple heterogeneous operating systems. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Any follow-up Paul?
<[Paul] STONEHENGE> That beta sounds great! I'll be first inl line! Yes,
follow up. OS/2 for Windows 'feels' a lot like HP New Wave but is...
is 'over' Windows like New Wave or 'under' Windows? GA
<[John] PRESS-13> Not quite Paul. OS/2 for Windows perhaps should have been
called BORG rather than FERENGI. Rather than operating either over or under
Windows, OS/2 for Windows actually assimilates Windows into OS/2 -- allowing
you to run DOS apps, Windows apps and OS/2 apps under this assimilated
operating environment. The Windows code actually runs on top of OS/2's
optimized DOS, but under the overall control of OS/2 (which virtualizes
interrupts to Windows and manages the I/O operations
(including the screen.) GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Okay.. everyone bear with me. The questioneer list looks
like this: Kevin, Eric, Doug, Amanda, Evan, and BACCHUS. You folks don't need
to raise your hands again. Anyone else with a question will be appended to the
list. So, let's do a trivia question before the next Question for John. Kathy?
<KFANNING> Okay, another book for the first!
<KFANNING> What does HPFS stand for?
<KFANNING> Congrats to all, no spelling errors!
<KFANNING> Lee was first for the book, Chris, Jack, and Eric get the trinkets.
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Okay .. we've got another 30 minutes to get thru these
questions.. Kevin is up next
<[OS2Ambasador] K.ROYALTY> Thanks for coming John. I have two questions:
First: Will IBM be continuing the Open Beta Program for OS/2 2.2 like they
have for 2.1 and the 2.11 Service Pak? GA
<[John] PRESS-13> We fully intend to continue having large and open beta tests
for our new releases of OS/2. We find that when we involve our customers,
potential customers, business partners, the press even in the requirements
stage, the design stage, the coding stage and the testing stage we end up with
a much better product. The recognition by PC Computing and other magazines is
great, but the fantastic sales are the recognition we really enjoy. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Follow up, Kevin?
<[OS2Ambasador] K.ROYALTY> That's great news John, thanks. Yes...typing
<[OS2Ambasador] K.ROYALTY> The Mwave Windsurfer Comm Adapter is similar to the
Audiovation card. The Audiovation has mention of OS/2 in it's statement of
direction. None for the MWave, which is perfect for OS/2. GA
<[John] PRESS-13> Kevin, what that last sentence a question?
<[OS2Ambasador] K.ROYALTY> ack. Yes, Will there be OS/2 support for the MWave.
<[John] PRESS-13> The MWave team is developing OS/2 device driver support. I
must leave it up to them (a separate group) to announce their plans and
products though. ... but I want an MWave card for my home PC -- so the
pressure is on them <g>. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Ok.. moving along .. Eric is next
<[Eric Pinnell] CYBERSIM> Oh goody. The wait is finally over<G>. John, I am
writing the cover story for the March issue of OS/2 magazine talking about OS/2
for Windows. In my benchmark tests, I have discovered (much to my disgust) that
the XGA drivers supplied with OS/2 2.1 for WINOS2 are to put it mildly, slower
than molasses. I have heard that the beta service pack for 2.1 includes new
seamless XGA drivers. So how do I go about getting a copy without having to
wait a week (I leave Tuesday for a week in Calgary). If I can get a quick
response, I'll have to write something like "OS/2 for Windows was a dog
running XGA", which I'd rather not. Also, do you know if the SP works with
OS24W? GA
<[John] PRESS-13> Eric, we know that a couple of the current display device
drivers are slow (one is very slow.) We are fixing the problems that I know
about. I suggest that you contact Franz Walkow of our device driver group in
Boca. Earlier I answered the question about the new Service Pak and I mentioned
that I have to check about whether there will be two (concurrent) Service Paks
(for OS/2 and for Ferengi) or a single Service Pak for both. I do not know
the answer tonight. Sorry. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Follow up question Eric?
<[Eric Pinnell] CYBERSIM> John, given that the big developers for OS/2 have
come out with some real turkeys in trying to make a quick port over to
OS/2, when is IBM going to stop being afraid of scaring off developers and
release some truly *HOT* OS/2 applications that will drive the OS/2 market.
Relying on 3rd party vendors means you will always get ports of Windows
products, except for some very small niche stuff that most users have never
heard of.> This is particularly galling since OS/2s multimedia
capabilities are embarassingly better than Windows. GA
<[John] PRESS-13> Eric, we already have some hot OS/2 applications -- some are
subsystems (DB2/2, CICS for OS/2, Communications Manager/2), some are cross
industry apps, (Time & Place/2, Personal Application System/2) and many
are vertical apps for banking, manufacturing, insurance -- these apps are
selling real well. As far as apps like speadsheets, wordprocessors, graphicsl,
etc -- we are working with 3rd parties to help them improve their apps.
Apps on Windows 3.0 (as you may recall from Lotus, WordPerfect, etc) were not
too hot on their initial release. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Thanks... next up, Amanda from World Corp
<[Amanda] WORLD.CORP> BTW, congrats to the OS/2 team for all the recent good
press. In particular I mean the InfoWorld 32-bit OS reviews. My question
concerns the acceptance & improvement of OS/2 in the near future.
I consult for SKC and Deloitte & Touche MC. When OS/2 was initially
released, I became an immediate fan, suggesting it for darn near every IT
project we encountered. And IBM support was marvelous, too. What it
couldn't handle, however, is down-sizing. I got OS/2 into production on
two projects. We're now pulling it off. Ultimately, we had to use SCO
Unix and (lately) Windows NT to do the core processing. Eventually,
we migrated those two systems to Windows NT. When it came down to large
numbers of transactions, OS/2 didn't do it for us. Instead, we ended up
placing NCR 3570s and 3575's running NT. Being able to purchase 32 Pentium's
in a box saved our necks. That's why JP Morgan, Chemical Bank, Johnson-Rice,
and most of New York's financial district won't even consider OS/2 anymore.
Question 1a: How long 'til OS/2 runs on industrial-strength machines?
Question 1b: DEC's Alpha is becoming our new sweetheart. How long until
you port?
Question 2: When will you guys stop waiting for an OS/2 killer app and write
one? Thanks for joining us on GEnie!
<[John] PRESS-13> Amanda, thanks for your questions and your support of OS/2. I
do not know if you are aware, but we have been demo'ing OS/2 recently running
on symmetrical multiprocessing machines and on RISC processors. The SMP support
will be going into beta test soon. The RISC version of OS/2 (from the Workplace
OS project) should be in beta test during 1994. Amanda, I think we already have
several killer apps for specific industries. And I think that ISV's are
starting to produce some great apps on OS/2 -- check out products like Quantum
Leap from Quantum Development Corp.
<[Jeff] ELKINS> And TE/2
<[Amanda] WORLD.CORP> What about the Alpha? I hate to turn this around on you,
but OS/2 SMP in beta is strictly "Not there..."
<[John] PRESS-13> Quantum Leap was recently announced as an app that would
exploit the Intel, RISC and SMP versions of OS/2. Also, check out products like
Brady's TE/2 <g>. GA
<[Amanda] WORLD.CORP> I need it yesterday, not in beta. I still love OS/2,
though. Errr... I'm done!
<[John] PRESS-13> Amanda, if you need SMP today, I recommend you get AIX on
RS/6000 or NT on some vendors SMP hardware, or SCO's offering, or ... GA
<[John] PRESS-13> Thanks for still loving OS/2. The SMP version is like fine
wine -- we are aging it before letting you enjoy it <g>. GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Okay.. we're goijng to do one more quick trivia question
and then Evan, your questio IS short isn't it? Then we have to leave John go
for tonight. Kathy?
<KFANNING> Okay, one last tshirt.....
<[John] PRESS-13> Kathy's sleeping.
<KFANNING> What's the premier 32-bit operating system on the market today?
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Okay .. Evan, ONE quick question...
<KFANNING> Was it that hard? Only 3 people answered - one trinket left!
<[Evan] TILRYTHRAN> John, I want to also thank you for taking the time to be
with us tonight. I'd like to address my last question to the OS/2 Market. How
is that market broken up, percentage-wise. I know that I heard in August from
one of the Keynote speakers (JC?) that corporate usage accounted for
approximately 80% of the OS/2 market, and that of that, the lion's share was in
the Finance, Insurance, and Processing (manufacturing) industries. Is this
changing? Is there anything which you could add to this? GA
<[John] PRESS-13> Evan, you have to be careful with numbers. Our corporate
sales numbers include large, medium and small corporations -- and they are
guesstimates as many purchases are through dealers. However, you are right,
OS/2 is selling extremely well to retail banks, insurance companies,
manufacturing companies and transportations (rail, air,etc.) companies.GA
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Okay! The OS/2 RT sysops and assistants, and everyone else
I'm sure, really want to thank you for coming tonight John! Hope we can do it
again sometime! My appologies to everyone who DIDN'T get their questions
asked. But now John has another neeting to attend!! Thanks again John!
<[John] PRESS-13> Brady, I had a great time. Mind if I leave with one long
message?
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Go for it!
<[John] PRESS-13> First of all, thank you to each of you who participated here
tonight. I am honored that you gave up your evening to exchange messages with
me. It is people like you who have shaped what OS/2 is today and what it will
be tomorrow. You have done this by asking questions and sending us your ideas.
We have lterally received hundreds of thousands of messages which we read and
factor into our product plans. Thank you. During the coming months, we have
some exciting enhancements coming for OS/2 --C2 security hooks, SMP support,
RISC processor support, distributed processing support, Taligent object
technology on OS/2, and much, much more. My deepest gratitude goes out to
each and everyone of you. Please have a safe, happy and healthy holiday
season.
<[Jeff] ELKINS> Thanks John! The honor was ours. Come back sometime!
<[OS/2][RTC] BRADY> Thanks once again. Jeff Elkins has informed me that the
transcript of this RTC will be available in the OS/2 RT LIBrary almost
immediately! ASCII and Ami formats. And thanks to all the participants!