OS/2 Shareware BBS: 32 Periodic/32-Periodic.zip/chgorept.zip/CHGOREPT.INF

OS/2 Help File | 1993-09-02 | 224KB | 218 lines

ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. About GREATER CHICAGO ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

GREATER CHICAGO Online!! is your MidWestern Connection to OS/2 and the home of
BookStore Online!! where you can purchase the lastest in OS/2 Books at
significant discounts.  Chicago hosts three user groups (working on a fourth)
and members of these groups frequent GREATER CHICAGO and our message
conferences.

We are the Illinois Hub for OS2Net and additionally we carry all the FidoNet
conferences that relate to OS/2 including those that originate on Pete
Norloff's board, OS/2 Shareware.  We are a full-fledged node on IBMNet and
carry all their OS/2 conferences as well as all the Internet NewsGroups that
relate to OS/2.

You can find the latest OS/2 files, a large selection of GIF files, and can
register your OS/2 Shareware here (MR/2, TE/2, BMR, PMQ, etc).  We support HST
and V.32 on four highspeed (14.4) lines.

The GREATER CHICAGO Report is a newsletter that appears monthly on the BBS and
is written by that highly opinionated SysOp Bill Cook, who minces no words on
how he feels about topics related to OS/2.  His main goal is to further the
cause of OS/2 and that is the mission of the Report and GREATER CHICAGO
Online!!

Next time you're in our neighborhood, drop in and say hello to GREATER CHICAGO.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. The GREATER CHICAGO Report  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 August, 1993

 September, 1993


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.1. August, 1993 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The GREATER CHICAGO Report

People are still in the process of discovering OS/2 for the first time.  We are
still getting new logins here every day from people who are just now hearing
about OS/2 and want to know more about it.  It still surprises me how well the
the industry has hidden this product from the average PC User.

Of course, anyone who's been around OS/2 for any length of time, understands
how this has happened.  They understand that the magazine publishers and
"independent" labs and testers aren't as unbiased as they would like to appear.
And they understand the reasons behind it.

But how do you tell someone who is just now discovering OS/2 the way OS/2 and
IBM have been treated in the press (or ignored).  How do you tell someone who
wants to learn more about this product because it "appears to be just what they
are looking for" how the press has put a wall of silence around OS/2 that would
make even the Secret Service envious.

An analogy that I like to tell to illustrate how ridiculous the press has been
not divulging OS/2's achievements, has to do with a ficticious invention that I
have developed.  I developed an automobile engine that runs on Rose Hips.  Now
there isn't a whole lot of Rose Hips around as you know and Rose Hips isn't
exactly the leading edge fuel these days.  I have found a few growers of Rose
Hips in the southern states, who used to work at some refineries down there,
but they don't have the sophisticated Rose Hips growing equipment to allow them
to produce large quantities of the fuel for mass consumption.  So I decided,
that I could make it easier for my new engine to be accepted if I also allowed
it to burn Ethanol and Gasoline. And I am marketing it as a 32cylinder,
multi-stroke 21st century design.

Now there are some amazing facts about this new engine of mine.  While it is
burning gasoline, it burns much more efficiently than a regular gasoline
engine.  And while burning ethanol, same thing - more efficient.  You get
better gas mileage with either of these.  And the engine doesn't care which
fuel you put in the tank or when - in fact, it will burn all three types of
fuel simultaneously and your vehicle will go farther, faster, than if using the
traditional gasoline engine.  And there's a new vehicle called the Multi-Medic
Van, that this engine seems like it was designed explicitly for. You can
actually attach a device called a scud-blaster to my engine installed in the
Mult-Medic Van and, transporting patients in an emergency situation, with
absolutely no power loss, you can play video-games and watch movies while
performing first-aid on your way to the hospital.

But, you know, I found out that this wasn't going to be as easy to market as I
thought.  There are a lot of Gasoline Companies out there, and a lot of
Gasoline-Burning Engine Manufacturers out there, who just don't want to see my
engine become a main-stream product.  And they have formed an informal alliance
with the industry associations and vendors to squeeze me out. Little Me!  Well,
to make a long story short, whenever there is even the slightest improvement in
a gasoline powered engine, or the faintest whisper of lower gasoline prices,
the trade press jumps all over the story and somehow the news of my exciting
new product just doesn't get in the papers.

Well, I haven't given up yet.  I am going to try making my own Rose Hips; going
to try publishing my own magazines and test results, and I've heard there's a
guy in Chicago by the name of Tim Sipples who likes to take on what appear to
be hopeless causes and I'm going to see if he can't help me explain how my new
invention is the answer the the 20th century transportation medium.  Maybe I
can get him to write an FAQ about it.

End of story.

Now if someone told us that this was a true story, we'd say, that could never
happen.  But to all you new users of OS/2 out there, that's exactly what has
been happening to OS/2.  And that's why it has taken you so long to discover
it.  The new version (2.x) has been around for over 16 months.  Doing Rose
Hips, Gasoline and Ethanol (OS/2, DOS and Windows).  And the trade press has
ignored it, tried to sweep it under the carpet, and just, in general, has done
a totally unfair job of reporting it's achievements.

But OS/2, in spite of all this, has risen above it - and so has IBM.  Big Blue
has taken the high road, publicized OS/2's achievements and delivered one of
the most exciting products ever to hit the PC Marketplace.  OS/2 definitely
will be with us for a long time. Long after DOS, long after Windows and long
after Gasoline!

Rose Hips Forever!

  Your SysOp

   ....Bill Cook

The Chicago Report is a monthly newletter appearing on GREATER CHICAGO Online!!
BBS for OS/2ers.

GREATER CHICAGO - Your MidWestern Connection to OS/2 [phone]


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.2. September, 1993 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The GREATER CHICAGO Report

After one of the user group meetings recently, several of us went out and had
dinner with one of the vendors who had come to our meeting to demo his software
product.  I won't refer to this person by name, but would just like to say that
his company is generally considered to be pro-OS/2 although they DO develop
products for other platforms (and have a considerable following).

I felt our discussion was worth relating, however, much of it was off the
record and I don't intend to violate that confidence.  But I came away with
some sobering conclusions about OS/2 and what IBM's challenge is in the near
term.

A.  IBM has never handled the PC business very well.  If anything they spent
the entire 1980s protecting the mainframe. To some, this is OS/2's heritage.

B.  The reason MicroSoft (Windows) continues to outsell OS/2, even though OS/2
is the better platform isn't because MicroSoft has so much of a hold on
developers and software vendors as it is the confidence the user places in the
future of Windows as opposed to the future of OS/2 and what IBM will do with
it.

C.  IBM's sensitivity to user requirements and requests continues to be spotty.
Several users related during the meeting previous to our dinner conversation
that they had asked for information at the previous month's meeting where IBM
speakers were in attendance, and they had still not heard from IBM on issues
raised.  Improvements have been seen in some user group contact points in IBM
corporate, but not so much at the field level.  At least not in Chicago.

D.  What happens to OS/2 is entirely in IBM's hands.  Much of the success of
OS/2 2.1 is due (not to minimize the importance of the operating system
development and support) to the grass roots movement within user groups and the
user community.  If IBM can't capitalize on this, then OS/2 will never outrun
Windows, DOS and the MicroSoft future operating system. IBM has a Golden Goose.
And the grass roots people know it.  It isn't apparent sometimes that IBM knows
it.  IBM needs every IBM employee's eyes open, on target, and in focus on OS/2
opportunities in the marketplace. This means putting people with OS/2 skills
directly in contact with User Groups and the User Community.  One David Barnes
or one Chris Novak can't do it by themselves.  Chicago needs about 18 Chris
Novaks just doing what Chris Novak is currently doing.  Right now they have 18
Chris Novaks, but only one of them is doing what Chris is doing.  The rest are
doing something else.  And Chris can't do it all.

E.  When IBM says they're going to do something in front of a bunch of users,
they need to follow up on it.  If somebody is going to be a main focal point
for IBM communication by Compuserve or Internet or whatever, and that is stated
publicly, they need to follow up on it - not 60 days from then but immediately.
Sixty days is one sixth of a full year. That's a beta period for some software
products.

F.  Software developers are impressed with the new OS/2.  It's not the old
stuffy product that they knew of in the eighties.  IBM needs to fund or
subsidize development of OS/2 software products.  Or get into the business
themselves.  One of the big reasons that Windows has been so successful is the
fact that MicroSoft gave it away.  Remember?  I do. There were times when I saw
Windows 3.0 for less than $50.  Many times it was free with a copy of one of
MicroSoft's Windows Apps (like Word or Excel).

I'm criticizing IBM, I guess, in hopes that it will be taken as constructive
criticism, generate thought and discussion on the subject, and motivate some of
our readers here to keep IBM's feet to the fire.  For they do have a Golden
Goose and sometimes it looks like IBM doesn't know it (at least when they try
to market it).  It's our Golden Goose.  We know its value. And while they are
still trying to get their bearings in this new restructuring they are
implementing, IBM's PSP needs to strike now, with a marketing surge while OS/2
has the advantage.  Now is not the time to rest because MicroSoft has faltered
with NT.  Now is the time to put OS/2 over the top.

Any of this that you've read here doesn't mean you should drop OS/2 and join
the Msoft forces.  Quite the contrary.  OS/2 has no equal.  And the support IBM
provides is quite adequate, and in many cases, without equal. What it does mean
is that OS/2, if it doesn't push out beyond it present state and really bite
into the marketshare for operating systems, will never reach its full
potential.  The applications that take advantage of its 32bit architecture and
its magnificent threading capability will never get developed.  Software houses
will simply opt for the big cash opportunities.  OS/2 still runs Windows and
DOS programs better than Windows and DOS.  But Windows and DOS programs will be
all it gets to run, because the advanced OS/2 applications simply won't get
produced.  That's a fact of life.  And no one should know that better than Big
Blue.

Until next month,

  Your SysOp

   ....Bill Cook

The Chicago Report is a monthly newletter appearing on GREATER CHICAGO Online!!
BBS for OS/2ers.

GREATER CHICAGO - Your MidWestern Connection to OS/2 [phone]