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1994-04-28
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PROS/2
The Newsletter of the Tampa Bay OS/2 Users' Group (TBOUG)
May 1994
MAY 4TH MEETING TO FEATURE MICRO FOCUS COBOL WORKBENCH
The next meeting of the Tampa Bay OS/2 Users' Group will be held Wednesday
evening, May 4th at IBM's LakePointe offices in Tampa.
COMMITTEE MEETINGS (5:45 - 6:45)
Three committee meetings will be held in parallel prior to our main meeting:
END USER EDUCATION COMMITTEE
The May committee meeing will focus on Maximizing the Workplace Shell
(the "Desktop"). Topics will include shortcuts, tips and tricks,
backgrounds, icons, drag and dro, cut and paste, and other topics as time
will allow. Following the presentation there will be a 10 minute Q&A
session driven by the audience. Some helpful utilities available for
downloading from the TBOUG BBS will also be shown. Please attend
promptly at 5:45 so we can maximize the time allotted.
PRODUCTION COMMITTEE
Steve Gillis of Dun & Bradstreet Plan Services will continue his session
on Fine Tuning OS/2 Settings. covering ways to make the desktop more
efficient for a multitasking environment and ways to speed up the desktop
itself for quicker screen refreshes and such. He will go into as much
detail as the group wants on each of the DOS Session Setting Options.
Covering both a plain DOS Session, a WIN-OS/2 Session, and creating an
image to boot a true version of DOS rather than OS/2's emulation.
APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
The committee will discuss the Information Presentation Facility (IPF)
which was postponed last month. IPF provides a fast easy way to create
on-line documentation with both text and graphics. It can also be used
to create windows, buttons and links to other applications.
MAIN MEETING (7:30 - 9:00)
Our featured speaker will be a representative of Micro Focus who will
present his company's COBOL Workbench, the preferred tool for writing
COBOL applications under OS/2. The Workbench consists of tools for
compiling and testing COBOL code, whether designing new software or
migrating from mainframe computers. If your company is considering
"downsizing" or if you are responsible for developing COBOL based
applications, you should not miss this session.
Light Pen Demonstration
TBOUG has secured a light pen for demonstration from Warp Speed Light
Pen, Inc. of Ruidoso, New Mexico. A computer with the light pen will
be made available at the meeting for members to try out this
technology.
AGENDA
Committee Meetings (5:45 - 6:45)
(Parallel Sessions)
- Production Committee
- Application Development Committee
- End User Education Committee
Dinner (6:45 - 7:30)
Main Meeting (7:30 - 9:00)
- Announcements
- IBM Updates
- Featured Speaker: Micro Focus, Inc.
The registration fee for the meeting is $13 for members who pre-register;
$15 for pre-registered guests. Please make your reservations early (no
later than May 2nd). The registration fee for those who do not
pre-register is $15 for members and $17 for guests. See the last page of
the newsletter to make your reservations.
LOCATION
IBM Tampa Services Center
4th Floor, LakePointe One Building
3109 West Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd.
Tampa
For directions, contact IBM at Tel: 813/872-2277 or
Brad Brown at 813/872-2156
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
The TBOUG Board of Directors recently held a meeting to discuss various
issues. Among them was the planning of an OS/2 Florida Conference to be
held in cooperation with other Florida OS/2 user groups. Enclosed in
this issue of PROS/2 is a Planning Survey which we ask you to complete
and either bring with you to the May 4th meeting or fax it back to me.
Your input is important to us! Please take a few moments to complete
the survey.
We also voted on a membership dues increase to take effect June 1, 1994.
Corporate membership will be $200 per year, and individual membership
will be $20 per year. For the remainder of 1994 we will prorate the
membership on a quarterly basis. This means effective July 1st,
corporate membership will be $100 and $10 for an individual
membership. Also, please note that committee meetings will be closed
to members only as of June 1st. This means if you're not a member,
now is the time to get involved!
Finally, check out the April 15th issue of DATAMATION magazine, page 43,
"SURPRISE! OS/2 IS TAKING OFF." This should be considered mandatory
reading for anyone remotely interested in OS/2. The article highlights
the success of OS/2 and predicts that there should be 10 million OS/2
users by December. The article also points out that there have only
been 270,000 copies of Windows NT sold to date. But perhaps the most
amusing item reported in the article is that the product manager for
Chicago (Windows 4.0), Jeff Thiel, has OS/2 running on his desk!
- Tim Bryce
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS!
Frank Belluccia - Tampa
William Charles Hast - Tampa
Kevin Moren - Clearwater, FL
Jerry Papa - Tonawanda, NY
Gein Grein - Sykes Enterprises - Tampa
John Rosinski - Publix - Lakeland
Time Customer Service, Inc. - Tampa
Dave Bass
Charles Callis
Mary Clemens
Wayne Coe
Jason Cohen
Lisa Cozene - Voting Delegate
Nick Fernandez
Pat Foster
Ed Grohe
Chris Lindsay
Dan Lundy
Mark Petit
Cheryn Philipoom
Mark Snyder
Tom Trout
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
The following is a list of events of interest to OS/2 users in the
Tampa Bay area:
May 8-11, 1994 - ASM Annual Conference; Orlando, FL; Tel: 216/243-6900
May 8-12, 1994 - International DB2 Users Group; San Diego, CA;
Tel: 312/644-6610
May 9-12, 1994 - Micro Focus User Conference; San Francisco, CA;
Tel: 415/496-7356
May 11-12, 1994 - Expotech Conference; Bay Front Center, St. Petersburg, FL;
Tel: 813/641-1633
May 12-13, 1994 - DPMA Regional Conference; Myrtle Beach, SC;
Tel: 813/225-5208
May 23-26, 1994 - COMDEX; Atlanta, GA; Tel: 617/449-6600
June 1, 1994 - Tampa Bay OS/2 Users' Group meeting; Tel: 813/786-4567
July 6, 1994 - Tampa Bay OS/2 Users' Group meeting; Tel: 813/786-4567
July 19-22, 1994 - OS/2 World Conference & Exposition; Santa Clara, CA
Sponsored by OS/2 MAGAZINE; Tel: 415/905-2354
August 3, 1994 - Tampa Bay OS/2 Users' Group meeting; Tel: 813/786-4567
August 7-12, 1994 - SHARE 82; Boston, MA; Tel: 312/822-0932
September 7, 1994 - Tampa Bay OS/2 Users' Group meeting; Tel: 813/786-4567
October 2-5, 1994 - OS/2 Professional Exchange; Palm Desert, CA
Sponsored by OS/2 PROFESSIONAL magazine; Tel: 301/770-3333
October 3-7, 1994 - Gartner Group Symposium '94; Orlando, FL;
Tel: 203/967-6757
October 5, 1994 - Tampa Bay OS/2 Users' Group meeting; Tel: 813/786-4567
October 1994 - Expotech Conference; Tampa Convention Center, FL;
Tel: 813/641-1633
November 2, 1994 - Tampa Bay OS/2 Users' Group meeting; Tel: 813/786-4567
November 6-11. 1994 - GUIDE; Atlanta, GA; Tel: 312/644-6610
November 9-10, 1994 - OS/2 LAN Tour '94; Sponsored by IBM; Tampa, FL;
Tel: 800/947-8688
November 14-18, 1994 - COMDEX; Las Vegas, NV; Tel: 617/449-6600
December 7, 1994 - Tampa Bay OS/2 Users' Group meeting; Tel: 813/786-4567
ALSO LOOK FOR TBOUG MEETING ANNOUNCEMENTS IN THE TAMPA TRIBUNE, ST.
PETERSBURG TIMES, PRODIGY, AMERICA ON-LINE, IBM LINK, COMPUSERV, AND
THE TBOUG BBS.
OS/2 FLORIDA CONFERENCE
Planning Survey
Whether you are a TBOUG member or a friend of the group, your comments are
IMPORTANT! Please take a moment to complete this survey and either bring
it to the May 4th TBOUG meeting or fax it to the TBOUG President, Tim Bryce,
at 813/786-4765; or mail to: MBA, 777 Alderman Road, Palm Harbor, FL
34683.
Background: OS/2 user groups from around Florida are considering pooling
their resources and sponsoring a major OS/2 conference in Florida
during the Fall. Please give us your thoughts regarding such a
conference.
YOUR MEMBERSHIP STATUS:
_____ Individual _____ Corporate _____ Friend of TBOUG
HOW DO YOU USE OS/2?
_____ In the Office _____ At Home _____ Both _____ Just Starting
or Evaluating
WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN ATTENDING A FLORIDA BASED CONFERENCE ON OS/2?
__________
IF INTERESTED, PLEASE SUGGEST SUBJECTS FOR THE FOLLOWING AREAS:
End User Education:
Application Development
Production
Vendor Presentations (either by Vendor Name or by Subject/Topic)
PLEASE SUGGEST SOME POTENTIAL SPEAKERS (including yourself if you want):
Name Company Telephone Subject
___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ____________________
___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ____________________
WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO VOLUNTEER YOUR TIME TO WORK ON THE CONFERENCE (in
either a small or large capacity)? ___________________________________________
YOUR NAME ______________________________ COMPANY_______________________________
TELEPHONE ______________________________ THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE!
TAMPA BAY OS/2 USERS' GROUP
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
The Tampa Bay OS/2 Users' Group (TBOUG) is a non-profit, vendor-independent
association dedicated to the effective use of IBM's OS/2 operating system.
Members of TBOUG are OS/2 licensees from around the Tampa Bay area of
Florida. There are two types of membership in the user group:
CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP allows a company to sponsor many employees to attend
user group functions. There is one (1) vote associated with a corporate
membership and the company must appoint an official voting delegate. The
price for an annual corporate membership is $100.
INDIVIDUAL MEMBERSHIP allows an individual to join the user group and
entitles him/her to the same rights and privileges as the corporate
member, except the individual has a one-tenth (1/10) membership vote.
The price for an individual membership is $10.
The association is governed by a set of bylaws and an Executive Board.
Members can attend meeting functions (monthly meetings and committee
meetings) at discounted rates, and are provided free access to the user
group's Bulletin Board Service (BBS). Membership applications should
be forwarded to the TBOUG Secretary: Mr. Rick Hoffmann at 8214 Donaldson
Drive, Tampa, FL 33615; Tel: 813/884-8395. Make checks payable to:
Tampa Bay OS/2 Users' Group.
TAMPA BAY OS/2 USERS' GROUP
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
MEMBERSHIP TYPE: _____ CORPORATE _____ INDIVIDUAL
IF CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP, WILL YOU BE THE VOTING DELEGATE? ________
"I HEREBY CONFIRM THAT I AM OR MY COMPANY IS A LICENSEE OF IBM'S OS/2
OPERATING SYSTEM AND, AS A MEMBER, WILL ABIDE THE BYLAWS OF THE
TAMPA BAY OS/2 USERS' GROUP."
NAME ____________________________________________________________
TITLE ____________________________________________________________
COMPANY ____________________________________________________________
ADDRESS ____________________________________________________________
CITY _________________________ STATE _____ ZIP ______________
TELEPHONE ____________________________________________________________
FAX ____________________________________________________________
I WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE ON THE FOLLOWING COMMITTEE(S):
_____ PRODUCTION _____ APPLICATION-DEVELOPMENT
_____ END-USER EDUCATION _____ OTHER _____________
RECEIVED BY (TBOUG): ______________________________ DATE: ________________
MEETING REGISTRATION - MAY 4TH MEETING
Please make reservations for the following individuals to attend the
May 4th meeting of the Tampa Bay OS/2 Users' Group. Please make
reservations no later than May 2nd!
Person Title Telephone
_____________________ ____________________ ___________________
_____________________ ____________________ ___________________
Company ________________________________________________________________
Address ________________________________________________________________
City _____________________ State ____________ Zip _________________
Fax: _________________________________________
Either Phone, Fax, or Mail your Please indicate the committee
registration to: meeting you plan to attend:
Tim Bryce
M. Bryce & Associates, Inc. _____ Production
777 Alderman Road _____ Application Development
Palm Harbor, FL 34683 _____ End User Education
Tel: 813/786-4567
Fax: 813/786-4765
BBS: 813/786-4864
PROS/2
May 1994
PROS/2 is the official newsletter of the Tampa Bay OS/2 Users' Group
(TBOUG), a non-profit, vendor-independent users' group dedicated to
the effective use of IBM's OS/2 operating system. IBM and OS/2 are
the registered trademarks of the International Business Machines
Corporation. Any OS/2 licensee within the Tampa Bay area of Florida
is eligible to become a member of TBOUG. Corporate membership is $100;
individual membership is $10. TBOUG was founded in December 1993.
Letters and manuscripts are welcomed and reviewed for possible publication.
Please supply narrative in ASCI text format.
ADDRESS
Tampa Bay OS/2 Users' Group
c/o M. Bryce & Associates, Inc.
777 Alderman Road
Palm Harbor, FL 34683
Tel: 813/786-4567
Fax: 813/786-4765
OFFICERS
President
Tim Bryce - M. Bryce & Associates, Inc.
Tel: 813/786-4567
BBS: 813/786-4864
Prodigy - WJKY92A
America On-Line - TimB1557
IBM Link - DEV2643
Vice President
Dave Hancock - Publix Super Markets, Inc.
Tel: 813/680-5215
Secretary
Rick Hoffmann - Dun & Bradstreet Pension Services
Tel: 813/884-8395
Treasurer
Richard Hubbard - FAA
Tel: 813/228-2299
BOARD MEMBERS
Chairman, Production Committee
Paul Wylie - M. Bryce & Associates, Inc.
Tel: 813/786-4567
Chairman, Application Development Committee
Ron Zero - M. Bryce & Associates, Inc.
Tel: 813/786-4567
System Operator, BBS
Greg Dodge - National Data Products
Tel: 813/442-8400 X 6
Chairman, Product Improvement Committee
Igor Androsov - M. Bryce & Associates, Inc.
Tel: 813/786-4567
Member at Large
Steve Schneer
Tampa Electric Company
Tel: 813/225-5253
NOTE: This newsletter was drafted, composed, and faxed using OS/2
based applications.
END
SURPRISE!
OS/2 IS TAKING OFF!!
by J. William Smich
DATAMATION
April 15, 1994
BY DECEMBER, THERE COULD BE 10 MILLION OS/2 2.X USERS.
AS FOR APPS, LOTUS RULES
When IBM began shipping its first release of OS/2 2.0 in
early 1992, most industry experts thought it would bomb. The
world was waiting for Microsoft Corp. to ship its new 32-bit
Windows NT operating system. Most analysts expected any potential
OS/2 buyers to wait and snap up NT instead. Independent software
vendors put their OS/2 apps on hold and waited to see, too.
Then came 1993, and NT finally did ship - and so far, at
least, it's the 32-bit OS that has bombed. By year's end,
according to computer research firm International Data Corp. (IDC),
Microsoft had shipped only 270,000 copies of NT. Who's building
NT apps these days? Microsoft hasn't even shipped one yet.
Meanwhile, OS/2 2.x has been on a roll. By the end of 1993,
IBM had sold over 4 million copies of OS/2 2.x. And this year,
ever since IBM announced a less costly version - OS/2 2.1 For
Windows - sales have begun to skyrocket. Street-priced at just
$38, OS/2 For Windows allows users to replace DOS with OS/2 2.1
and still run their existing Microsoft Windows 3.1 code.
Industry analysts have had to go back and rewrite their
forecasts. And most ISV's - now waiting for Microsoft to ship
its 32-bit Chicago version of Windows - have been caught without
any OS/2 products to sell.
Last year, IDC had forecast that Windows NT would outship
OS/2, says John Gantz, senior vice president for personal systems
at the Framingham, Mass., consulting firm. "We've lowered our NT
forecast and increased our OS/2 forecast. Now we look for OS/2
to outship NT through the end of the decade."
This year alone, says Gantz, IBM will sell another 5 million
units of OS/2 2.x - and much of that will be through retail
sales. Microsoft will ship only about a million and a half
copies of Windows NT in 1994, he adds.
That adds up to a potential market of nearly 10 million
users for OS/2 apps by the end of this year. Ten million users
for OS/2 - and where are the OS/2 apps?
Few and far between. ISVs still remember the wasted
investments during the late 1980's on OS/2 apps that went unsold
while consumers gobbled up Microsoft's own Windows desktop apps
instead. Most software vendors, say insiders, are working hard to
port their applications to MIcrosoft's even newer 32-bit operating
system, Chicago, which is so different from Windows 3.x (and
from OS/2 for that matter) that it is demanding a major rewrite
of most apps. That alone is requiring long-term investment on
the parts of Borland International Inc., Symantec Corp.,
WordPerfect Corp. and other leading desktop-software vendors.
Although IBM claimed some 1,000 apps were commercially
available for OS/2 last year (see "The OS/2 Applications Handbook"
published by Miller and Freeman, 1993), the greater part of
these were not what you'd call mainstream desktop applications.
Under "Word Processing," for example, IBM included products like
SE International Inc.'s DocuMenta, Belgium-based SILI's Interscript,
DeScribe Inc.'s DeScribe and WordPerfect's WordPerfect
5.2 For OS/2 - not WordPerfect 6.0. Although WordPerfect has
announced that it won't upgrade its OS/2 product to version 6.0, it
has upgraded WordPerfect Office For OS/2. Maybe that's because
the company uses the OS/2 versions internally.
Still missing from the list of OS/2 products are many of the
resource-intensive desktop applications that benefit most from
running under OS/2's 32-bit multithreaded and preemptive
multitasking environment, like Aldus PageMaker, Adobe Photoshop or
Quark's QuarkxPress.
On the other hand, ISVs have continued to invest heavily in
upgrading their database and network server and systems management
products. Sybase Inc.'s new SQL Server For OS/2, Oracle
Corp.'s OS/2 version of Oracle 7 and IBM's own DB2/2 are good
examples of the continued strong interest by high-end users in OS/2.
In addition, strong sales of 32-bit OS/2 development tools
continue to attract leading tool vendors. Borland recently
announced a 32-bit version of its C++ tools, for example, complete
with applications frameworks that let developers build both for
OS/2 2.x and Windows NT.
This year, with OS/2 boasting 4 million users and heading
fast for 10 million, more desktop application software vendors
are beginning to take a stronger interest, says John Soyring,
director of strategic relations for IBM's personal software
products (PSP) division in Austin, Texas. And given the slow
sales of NT, several have begun to increase investment in OS/2
development and hold back on investment in Windows NT. "There's
definitely been a shift from our trying to sell people on building
OS/2 apps to where they come to us now and ask how they can
build for OS/2," Soyring says.
A good example of that has been Lotus Development Corp., an
early - and greatly disappointed - investor in OS/2 products.
Lotus' former lackluster commitment to its aging pre-Windows 3.x
OS/2 products - Lotus 1-2-3 and Lotus Freelance Graphics For OS/2
- has turned into a renewed interest and strong commitment of new
resources. Lotus CEO Jim Manzi even predicts a second wave of
interest in OS/2 and says he wants Lotus to catch that wave this
time.
Some may have thought Manzi was merely repeating Lotus' 1988
mistake of overestimating OS/2's power in the market and ignoring
Microsoft Windows - this time ignoring demand for Windows NT.
But this year, Lotus looks to have been right. And with few
others to share the market with, Lotus marketeers are very happy
with the decision.
Says Hilmi Ozguc, senior product manager for all Lotus 1-2-3
products and for Smartest For OS/2, the market has been booming and
we've been selling a bunch of OS/2 products. It really has been a
sleeper for a long time. Our OS/2 business has been increasing
on a quarterly basis at a significant rate this year. And we are
the premier vendor for that market - we own the market."
Although Microsoft, like Lotus, built OS/2 versions of its
word-processing and spreadsheet products in the 1980's, these
haven't been upgraded or revised for two or three years, Ozguc
adds. Even so, customer demand recently has pushed Microsoft to
announce two new OS/2 applications of its own: Microsoft Mail For
OS/2 and a new version of Microsoft LAN Manager For OS/2 2.1,
which now has many of the components found in Microsoft Windows
NT Advanced Server.
Lotus has been selling its new Smartest 1.0a For OS/2 2.x
since last November. Like its Windows version of Smartest, the
32-bit OS/2 version includes Lotus 1-2-3, Lotus Ami Pro 3.0a,
Lotus Freelance Graphics and cc:Mail. The new release is 25%
faster than the earlier SmartSuite release.
Islandia, N.Y.-based Computer Associates International Inc.
also is hoping to jump on the OS/2 wave with a full catalog of
products - everything from desktop products like its CA-Textor
word-processing software, CA-Complete! spreadsheet and CA-Simply
Accounting application to corporate IS products like its CA-
REALIZER and CA-Realia II Workbench software development tools
and its CA-UNICENTER For OS/2 systems management tools.
CA sees rising demand among IT professionals in particular
for its OS/2 products. A striking example, says Mark Sokol, CA's
vice president for product strategy, has been sales of CA-REALIZER
For OS/2, a Visual Basic-like development tool that lets
developers easily create event-driven GUI-based client/server
applications using a basic command syntax. "We know Microsoft
would never put Visual Basic on OS/2. So we've had tremendous
demand for CA-REALIZER For OS/2."
In fact, says Sokol, the OS/2 version of CA-REALIZER sold
out first time around. "We had to go through a complete product
re-build - it was off the shelves and out of inventory two months
after we launched it. That's the first time that had ever
happened to us."
Does that mean CA will port all of its applications to OS/2
and not to Windows NT?
"It's true our OS/2 product line is fuller," Sokol says.
"As for NT, today it's not a desktop platform, it's a server
platform. CA-UNICENTER is a natural for NT, maybe the datacenter
products like IDMS and Datacom. But as far as desktop NT
products go, we're holding back and making that decision later."
With OS/2 presently selling at four times the rate of
Windows NT, it looks as though IBM's OS/2 has for the moment won a
battle to become the 1994 champion of 32-bit desktop operating
systems. Some leading ISVs seem to agree; but just as potential
OS/2 users and developers held back in 1992, waiting to see what
Microsoft had to offer in Windows NT OS, many are now pinning
their hopes on the Chicago 32-bit version of Windows.
IBM OS/2 group will have to wait until 1995, after Windows
4.0 has been shipping for a few months, to see if they've won not
only the battle, but the war, for the desktop.
WHAT'S COMING UP FOR OS/2?
This Year: OS/2 2.2
* Reduced memory footprint for OS/2 to 4mb.
* Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) client productivity.
* IBM's first implementation of the OpenDoc distributed application
function from Taligent Inc. and Apple Computer Inc.
* Automatic support for Plug-and-Play hardware configuration
specifications, hardware error logging and Peripheral
Component Interconnect (PCI) bus recognition.
Late 1994 - Early 1995
* WIN32s compatibility with ability to run Chicago applications.
* C2 security capability and, in Europe, E2 security certification.
* Desktop Management Interface (DMI) compliance.
* Peer-to-peer networking built in.
* OS/2 for symmetrical multiprocessing (available from SMP
hardware vendors).
* Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) server connectivity.
Later 1995: OS/2 3.0
* Portable Workplace OS kernel for complex instruction set (CISC)
and reduced instruction set (RISC) computers.
* Full Taligent Environment (TAE) compatibility.
HOW COME CHICAGO LOOKS SO MUCH LIKE OS/2?
Good question. A better question: are there a few bytes of OS/2 in
Chicago? Some say yes; Microsoft won't say no.
When Windows Magazine last January gave its readers one of the earliest
looks at Chicago, Microsoft Corp.'s new 32-bit version of DOS and
Windows, references to IBM's OS/2 abounded. A smattering: "It's actually
a 32-bit operating system that's more like...dare we say it?? OS/2 2.1!...
than any creaky old DOS version."
And: "Like OS/2 (and unlike NT), Chicago virtualizes DOS..."
Or: "To command-line users, Chicago looks like DOS but feels like
OS/2."
Finally: "The feature set of Chicago is very, very close to that of
OS/2 2.1."
Ditto for the March PC Computing cover article on Windows 4.0
(Chicago). Examples: "The new Windows interface looks remarkably like
OS/2's Workplace shell. Windows 4.0 will follow OS/2's lead..."
Or: "Just like OS/2 2.1, Windows 4.0 can 'tune' the properties of
virtual DOS machines."
Says Lotus Development Corp.'s Hilmi Ozguc, senior product manager
for Lotus 1-2-3 For Windows and OS/2, "Early versions of Chicago look an
awful lot like OS/2. It looks like it's based on the common user interface
stuff IBM and Microsoft worked on four years ago," when the two companies
were jointly developing both OS/2 2.0 and what was then called OS/2 3.0 NT.
"A lot of the technologies that are part of Chicago - multithreading,
multitasking, drag and drop, etc., are things that have been part of OS/2
for a while now," he notes. "The Chicago product manager, Jeff Thiel, even
has OS/2 running on his desk."
Microsoft's Thiel says yes, he has OS/2 up and running close at hand.
"But we have Macintosh, NextStep, Solaris, all those things running
around here, too," he says.
On the question of whether Chicago actually includes any code from
OS/2 2.x, Thiel declines to answer directly. "All modern operating
systems support multithreading and multitasking, 32-bit flat memory as
well as drag and drop," he says. And yes, several of the original
programmers who built OS/2 jointly with IBM are working on Chicago,
he adds.
Then he counters, "A better question would be to ask, 'Is OS/2
derivative of Microsoft's code?' The virtual DOS technology (in
OS/2 2.x and now in Chicago) was developed by...Microsoft."
Hey, Jeff, did you forget something? Microsoft built the original
version of OS/2 - version 1.x - as well as OS/2's Presentation Manager
GUI and a good piece of OS/2 2.0. "Derivative" may well be an
understatement.
END