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Item 8747540 93/09/08 14:10
From: CGEIGER@NEXT.COM@INTERNET# Internet Gateway II
Subject: NEXTSTEP for HP PA-RISC in Open Systems Today - HP Focus Section,
August 30, 1993
Hello,
Here is a recent article on NEXTSTEP for HP PA-RISC from Open
Systems Today (August 30, 1993 issue) that I thought that you might
be interested in. Note the references to Windows NT.
Conrad Geiger
NeXT
_________________________________________________________________
OPEN SYSTEMS TODAY
August 30, 1993
HP Focus Section -- Page HP4
A Place On The Desktop For NextStep And Windows NT
PA-RISC Attracts Client-Server Operating Systems
By Ron Seybold
HP's success with RISC systems in business environments has done
more than draw praise from its customers: Its PA-RISC architecture
has attracted two of the most talked-about desktop operating
systems in the client server community today-Microsoft NT and
Next's NextStep.
Although HP said it sees customers using NT as a client, connected
to HP hardware, it hasn't decided yet whether to support a direct
port of NT to its PA-RISC platform. NextStep is a different story:
HP appears quite enthusiastic about supporting the NextStep
operating environment and other Next technology.
For instance, HP's alliance with Next-called Object Enterprise-is
moving forward and is expected to produce a tangible HP product
sooner than a similar alliance with Microsoft is likely to bear
fruit. Under the Object Enterprise agreement, HP promised to
assist Next in its port of the NextStep 3.1 object-oriented
operating environment to HP's PA-RISC-based workstations. The two
have set product delivery for 1994.
In addition, Next will deliver its Portable Distributed Objects
(PDO) for the HP 9000 Series 800 Corporate Business Servers running
HP-UX this fall. PDO technology addresses the need to distribute
NextStep objects across multiple platforms in an enterprise
computing environment.
Earlier this year, HP said that although it doesn't believe Next is
breaking new ground with its object designs, it cannot deny that
NextStep has become highly favored among users in the financial
services community, a key commercial market segment for HP's
workstation efforts.
"The financial marketplace and the traders are getting tremendous
value out of NextStep," said Rick Sevcik, general manager of HP's
systems and servers group. "They're using its object technology to
do some very rapid application prototyping, Through using that
operating system and software environment, they provides very
quick, highly modifiable applications that they need in their
businesses."
HP is moving NextStep onto its systems that run HP-UX-the Series
800 servers and Series 700 workstations. Next expects the
high-performing HP hardware to give its software a foothold in
places where servers need more power than Intel-based PCs can
provide.
"This is an excellent alliance for Next," said Next CEO Steve Jobs,
"especially given HP's leadership in enterprise computing and
object-oriented computing standards."
Adhering to those standards, especially Object Management Group's
Common Object Request Broker Architecture, is a key HP objective at
the enterprise level. HP praised Next's development environment,
but said it found Next's participation in OMG and other standards
bodies "less than significant."
On the other hand, HP said it sees NextStep as the best operating
system for traders' desks, noting that several major HP customers
have chosen NextStep for development of financial services
applications.
"The question is: What [is the] operating system that's right for
me in that market?" Sevcik said. "For those financial kinds of
applications, the answer from HP is NextStep."
In contrast to its enthusiastic support for NextStep, HP holds a
wait-and-see attitude toward Microsoft's Windows NT. For one
thing, HP wants to see which customers clamor for Windows NT. In
addition, even though HP's support group signed a pact earlier this
year to service NT users, HP has done only a preliminary technical
study of an NT port to PA-RISC, HP executives say.
"If NT finds a niche in the marketplace that's sufficiently large
to demand our attention, we could certainly offer NT as part of our
solution," said Dave Stevens, general systems division product
manager. "We're already a multi-operating system environment on
PA-RISC with MPE and HP-UX. We're not in a position yet where we
think NT has established itself enough for us to be an NT
supporter."
Stevens said his division, which is the one working with Next
engineers to port NextStep, "is watching acceptance and
capabilities."
"I think NT will probably have most of its success in the print and
fileserving marketplace, where it tries to compete head-on with
NetWare," he said, noting, as HP itself has done, that HP already
has a Novell NetWare operating system license for its HP 3000
systems.
Stevens also expressed skepticism that Microsoft's NT can serve
multiple platforms with a single operating systems. To ensure the
code integrity of its operating system, Microsoft must control its
operating system licenses so licensees cannot make changes to the
code. That's unlikely, Stevens said.
"There are some inherent problems in that model that we learned
through the OSF days," Stevens said. "NT would purport to be what
OSF was unable to achieve-that is, a single set of binaries that
will run across all platforms."
Stevens added that HP also doubts Microsoft is big enough to
respond in a timely manner to bug-fix requests and revision
demands.
"They're saying you can't make changes to NT," he explained.
"That's fine, if you believe Microsoft can respond fast enough to
the growing demands of the customer base, and if you're willing to
wait as long as you do today in DOS for bugs to be fixed, when the
next version comes out a year later."
Graphic of NextStep screen shot: HP considers NextStep important
to its financial services efforts.
=END=