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Subject: Re: Will anyone buy NT??  (Yes - Intelligent People)
Date: Sun, 07 Apr 1996 20:56:33 GMT
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CLIP AND SAVE THESE INFORMATIVE OS2 POSTS

From: [e-mail] (MARC FAUBERT)
Newsgroups: alt.org.team-os2
Subject: Teamers See The Future
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: Sat, 06 Apr 96 01:56:00 -0500
Distribution: world
Organization: Westonia Computer Systems of Canada
Reply-To: [e-mail] (MARC FAUBERT)
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The first in a series of posts from Teamers who have finally seen the
light. They have accepted the fact that IBM is not going anywhere with
OS/2, so should you?


Welcome to the Toronto
           OS/2 User's Group
                   Newsletter!

                       volume 1, issue 9

  Bringing Toronto's OS/2 community timely information,
  quality speakers and a helpful forum for their questions.


From the Warped Mind of the Editor

Now I know how Goliath felt when defeated by David. Think about that as
you read through this editorial, which is longer than normal (I
apologize to those who don't like my rantings). The future of OS/2 is,
in actuality, not very clear, and not very firm. Personally, I've been
despairing about the future of OS/2 for several months. Others have been
for much longer, others are just waking up to the facts. If you haven't
yet, read on, because this is your wake up call.

I looked around the room last meeting, knowing what I did, and was
truly worried. This group is made up of a lot of people who use Warp in
non-corporate environments - SOHOs or in their home. Personally, I fall
into the later category. As of January 2, 1996, although nothing is
official, anyone that uses OS/2 in these environments has been told that
they are not one of IBM's customers. Thanks for supporting OS/2 and
Warp, but we don't want you as one of our customers.

That's not to say that the products, eg. the yet to be beta Merlin,
will not be available at the retail level. Far from it - all of IBM's
products go "through channel" so to speak. Then again, will IBM give
you support when you're a single, "non-connected" (to a LAN) user? Not
bloody likely. They want the 100+ copy purchasers, and want to sell
them both Server software and Workstation software.

So much so, in fact, that I hear there has been a real shake up at IBM.
The development of future OS/2 products has been split - Warp Server,
and other server products, have all been transferred to the LAN Server
group, and Warp/Merlin has been transferred over to another unit
working on connectivity, likely the same bunch that produces Netfinity
and such. In other words, there is no Personal Software Products
division. Oh, what great news. Now I can't get support for future IBM
products, because the products I bought were personal, on my personal
desktop at my personal home. No customer of IBM's runs their software
at home, apparently.

Whereas MicroSoft is pushing very hard for the home market, IBM
(despite it's claims) is giving up where it never even really tried.
They throw their hands up, say they added "Multi-media" (which they
sort of did), and will now say that no one ever wanted home
applications for OS/2, if they did they would have used the game
developer's kit, the DIVE extensions, etc., etc. Game titles and such
are the home market, and everyone knows it. There's lots of games out
there for OS/2 as long as you want to play solitaire. I don't see anyone
porting MechWarrior2, something that would take VERY well to DIVE
extensions. Of course, this may be because IBM never seemed to ASK anyone
to port to OS/2 - well, no one except He Who Writeth the Mythical Beaste
Doome for OSTwo. Where are the home applications? Gone. As the home
user will be soon.

I performed another sting this week - this time at one of IBM's home
computing store. It was quite interesting, to say the least. Of the
two staff members, both of them knew how to spell OS/2, which was
no mean feat. One of them was not terribly literate with computers in
general, but knew his products. The other was a Teamer if I've ever
seen one. This gent told me that I shouldn't look at a Pentium Pro,
I should get a PowerPC with OS/2 Warp for PPC when it is released.
I didn't have the heart to tell him - WalterK tells me that Warp for
PPC is dead, and that all of the product development for the PPC has
stopped. But at least someone knew what the hell was going on with
OS/2 Warp.

Which brings me back to my David and Goliath principal. IBM IS Goliath,
no matter how you slice it. They are a huge company, and maybe as many
say a hardware company that should never have tried their hand at
software. That may well be, but the software they have released is
excellent. Go back and ask those MIS guys about Netfinity, they'll tell
you. David, being MS, has obviously won the battle, or at least tired
Goliath. Goliath is now pulling back, trying to cut his losses. You and
I are his losses, the ones being cut. Save for a few members of our group
who use OS/2 in a large corporate environment, we won't see anything
past Warp with support for the rest of the really little Davids like us
out there.

I don't like being the one who disseminates this information. Really,
I'd rather be compiling all the stuff coming out for OS/2. The harsh
reality is that I'm not, and because the entire newsletter is contained
on Eddie, the content is what I get sent to me or pick up myself. There
isn't much. Nothing is happening in the months of December 1995 and
January 1996 on OS/2 fronts, folks - I would (and am) really worried.
Something is rotten in the fate of OS/2, it seems. No ISVs are
announcing anything but upgrades. No word of new products from major
vendors. Not a peep out of Lotus. Nothing.

I have often said a that it wouldn't take much for me to switch to Win95
(or preferably NT) - in fact, it would only take an application like
Zap-O-Comm and an application like Golden Commpass (already in Win95
development) for me to make the switch. Remember back when Win95 was
first called Win95? Right after the name change from Chicago, MS told
all ISVs that in order to have the "Windows 95 Compatible" logo for their
95 apps, they had to be code compliant with the API set run by NT. In
other words, the programs had to work on both OSs. About 8-10 months
later, MS retracted this restriction due to public pressure. Don't be
fooled. 8-10 months represents a vast investment by any ISV in a program,
and if it had been co-compliant to that point, the ISV sure wasn't going
to tinker with code that was already written. I'll be SmartSuite96 runs
on Windows NT. Most other major ISVs would also program for the API
set, so that would give me a clear upgrade path.

Right now, unless you are on a LAN, there is no upgrade path if you use
OS/2. Not if you want support. And this is the crux of the future of
OS/2 - it will be vertical market, going for large LANs. There will only
be two flavors of Connect, if even - the equivalent of "Red Spine
Connect" and "Blue Spine Connect". If you're not connected, forget it.
Meanwhile Win95 is being installed on thousands of stand alone home
machines. Go figure, someone is marketing and someone isn't.

Now I know how Goliath felt when the wimp came to town to become a hero.

If there is something you would like to see in the NL, just drop me a note:

Martin Moran, Editor




Marc Faubert                        [e-mail]
Ajax, ON, Canada                    [e-mail]

* SLMR 2.1a #1234 * I see the light at the end of...oh shit... it's a train !
---------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (MARC FAUBERT)
Newsgroups: alt.org.team-os2
Subject: Teamers See the Future 2
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: Sat, 06 Apr 96 02:06:00 -0500
Distribution: world
Organization: Westonia Computer Systems of Canada
Reply-To: [e-mail] (MARC FAUBERT)
X-Newsreader: PCBoard Version 15.22
X-Mailer: PCBoard/UUOUT Version 1.20
Lines: 61

Another long time teamer - ex IBM'er Bill Cook who used to publish the
ex OS/2 GrassRoots Gazette. He too has seen the future, and sees it
doesn't include OS/2.

March 11, 1996

This issue of the OS/2er's GrassRoots Gazette will be our last. I've
seen this coming, I guess, for a some time. Everything has a beginning
and an ending. Our beginning was about 4 years ago as an ASCII and
PostScript version. We graduated to an INF version several issues
later and then published our first HTML version at our Web Site at
http://www.gco.com/grassroots.html last summer.

Our ending is here today on your desktop. We're not ending our publication
due to lack of interest on the part of the user community. Let's make
that clear. We're ending today because we realize now at long last that
IBM has plans for OS/2 other than making it victorious on the desktop.
For some reason, they haven't gotten your message, but we have gotten theirs.

As Editor and Founder of this publication, I don't wish to continue
playing a part in rah-rahing OS/2 into obscurity even when it's the
greatest platform ever to hit the desktop, which OS/2 undeniably is.
Being in the GrassRoots of any movement, be it political or otherwise,
implies that you have confidence that, if the strategy gets implemented
and if a little luck comes your way, your contender stands a chance of
winning. And what's more that your contender actually has the desire to
win. I don't feel that way about what IBM is doing with OS/2.

In fact, to be honest, I must say that I feel a little foolish out here
ballyhooing for OS/2. I love the product and can't see myself using
anything else. I just don't want to be running from pillar to post
chanting and cheering about something or someone who chooses not
to run.

So like Dave Whittle, who wrote in his column for this issue that he's
hanging it up, I, too, regrettably but with some degree of feeling a
whole lot better about it, add myself to the growing community of OS/2's
well-wishers saying, "I've got to get on with my life and career."

We all heard the news that David Barnes is back at IBM. I suspect that
he has found that in the short time he was away, IBM has changed OS/2's
mission. Perhaps that happened even before he left and was one of the
reasons he was prompted to leave in the first place. Perhaps, knowing
all along that this would be the outcome, he left, thought it over
while looking for work elsewhere and decided he'd been a bit hasty in
leaving his lifetime source of making a living for his family.

Having known David Barnes these many years that I've been an OS/2'er,
I know that I am leaving the rah-rahing for OS/2 in good hands. Perhaps
he will change IBM's mind, perhaps not.

I want to thank the thousands of you who have read the GrassRoots
Gazette each time we've published and the hundreds of you who have
written with your suggestions and comments. It's been a lot of fun.

Bill Cook

⌐ 1996 OS/2er's GrassRoots Gazette. All rights reserved.


 * SLMR 2.1a #1234 * Install OS/2 - all of the other nonconformists have...
---------------------------------------------
From: [e-mail] (MARC FAUBERT)
Newsgroups: alt.org.team-os2
Subject: Teamers See the Future 3
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: Sat, 06 Apr 96 02:27:00 -0500
Distribution: world
Organization: Westonia Computer Systems of Canada
Reply-To: [e-mail] (MARC FAUBERT)
X-Newsreader: PCBoard Version 15.22
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And finally, the last word from the founding father of the faithful,
Dave Whittle. Note his disppointment with teamer behaviour, and his new
grasp on reality.

Wonder what the cult will think of this - will Dave fall from champ to
chump on the basis of his po3t? I hope not, many would do well to heed
his words of wisdom.

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

Many of you who have joined the ranks of OS/2 grassroots uprising in
the past couple of years may not/probably don't know me--so I'll just
introduce myself as IBM's first OS/2 Evangelist (Jan. '92) and the
founding father of Team OS/2 (Feb. '92). I also co-authored "Dvorak's
Guide to OS/2," represented IBM and OS/2 online and to many key media
influencers, and spearheaded the project to make OS/2 Warp recognize
over 200 of the top games.

With that background, I've struggled at IBM this past year as the
decision was made to de-emphasize OS/2 in the market segments most
near and dear to my heart: homes and small businesses. I decided to
leave last October. Because it was a personal decision based on many
things relating to IBM, OS/2, and me, I'd rather not get into great
detail, even if mucΦ of it is relevant to OS/2's future. Suffice it to
say that OS/2 is being repositioned by IBM, and the "grassroots" are
being de-emphasized but not abandoned. Please bear in mind that I cannot
give you many specifics, because of commitments of confidentiality I've
made. So if my statements are long on advise and short on proof, please
forgive me. I'd be more open if I could.

I once believed that OS/2's technical elegance and architectural
superiority would matter more than Microsoft's incredible marketing
muscle. I don't anymore. It's too late for us to expect IBM mass
marketing of OS/2 to get any better. What we saw at the OS/2 Warp
rollout is as good as it's going to get, folks. IBM's marketing to
corporations will remain top-notch, but most of us at the grassroots
level simply aren't going to see the results in the trade press or
online or anywhere else where we usually gather information. We'd
better get used to it. The IBM system doesn't really understand and
doesn't cope well with grassroots marketing, marketing to the media,
or even Team OS/2. Even those who do are largely helpless to shape the
system to favor the little guy. Getting products like "Family Fun Pak"
out the door represented heroic efforts by folks who were literally
fighting the system every step of the way. IBM just isn't interested in
being the Proctor and Gamble of small systems.

So what does that mean? Well, you'll need to make your own decisions, but
I've made mine. It means I'm going to be as realistic as possible. I'm
going to stop fighting. I'm not fighting IBM anymore. I'm even going to
stop fighting Microsoft. I recognize that OS/2 isn't going away, and
that Microsoft's success doesn't spell doom for OS/2. I'm going to use
whatever operating system on whatever machine it makes sense to use it on.
Win95 and OS/2 (Boot Manager) on my laptop, OS/2 on my PS/2 server,
Win95 on my Dell, and Windows NT or Linux on an Internet server. I've
got a network setup, and these operating systems work well together and
coexist nicely. There are applications that run better on Win 95, and
others that work better under OS/2. I wish the best of both worlds
were available on a single platform, but in my experience, at least,
they're not. Since I want what's best for me, I'm going to learn to
live in a heterogeneous operating environment.

I hope this doesn't offend anyone. I'm not abandoning OS/2 or embracing
Microsoft. I'm trying only to do what's right for me--and living at
peace with everyone makes a lot more sense than having enemies. I've
been a lot happier since abandoning the warpath I was on, and seeking
once again the harmony that comes from accepting things the way they
are. The Barkto incident, the Team OS/2 nastiness, and my problems with
IBM are behind me now--and life looks a lot brighter. I hope as an OS/2
community that we can lose the "us/them" mentality that allows some of
our friends to look at us as if we were the enemy somehow. I hope to
see many of you around in my new roles as writer, consultant, and
entrepreneur--and I hope to be a happy OS/2 user for a long, long time.
But I won't be criticizing and belittling those who also find much to
like in Win95 or Windows NT or Linux--because that includes me. Those
of us on Team OS/2 can, I hope, embrace diversity without rancor--even
towards those who are rude and rancorous towards us. It's the best
policy not only for those of us who love OS/2, but for those of us who
love life.

Best wishes,

Dave Whittle

[e-mail]



Marc Faubert                        [e-mail]
Ajax, ON, Canada                    [e-mail]

 * SLMR 2.1a #1234 * Team OS/2 - Rebels without a cause, or IBM support.