Bob Greenberg Replies to Mr. Alsop

Dear Mr. Alsop

I noticed your commentary on OS/2 last week in Info World on page 4. You are obviously slanted against the OS/2 operating system. Amazing that anyone can be so negative against a product that is as open as OS/2 2.0. You undoubtedly haven't had a chance to experience OS/2's new 32bit environment which runs all of your existing DOS and Windows applications, in addition to the "new and exciting" OS/2 applications in both 16 and 32 bits. Or perhaps you haven't experienced the ability to run multiple DOS and Windows applications with decent response, as I do under OS/2 2.0. Or the ability to log on as multiple users from one machine using the Netware requester. Perhaps you don't need to connect to multiple systems (I'm currently runing the IBM LAN Requester, the Netware Requester, 5250 & 3270 emulaion, AS/400 PC support under APPN and TCP/IP concurrently. Or running ODI and NDIS protocols on the same LAN adapter.  This works NOW despite being in beta.). Maybe you aren't a programmer, so you can't appreciate keeping your editor and compiler in separate sessions and then having yet another session (protected from the rest of the system) to test your new code in.

Or maybe you just enjoy working in native DOS/Windows. I know all that waiting for your cursor to catch up to your fingers, or rebooting your machine 6 or 7 times a day when an application crashes must be an exhilerating experience for you. Or maybe you really enjoy manually maintaining 4 regions of memory??

But your biggest complaint (this week) is old news--that OS/2 is going to take up an astounding 25MB (IBM claims 28MB). Nice of you to give IBM a 3MB break this time! I wonder if you realize that OS/2 includes the code you would normally have to install for DOS and Windows, so if you factor 12 megs for DOS and Windows (a conservative estimate), OS/2 is really only taking up an extra 13 megs and that includes Adobe Type Manager, full on-line documentation, and more applets than Windows ever included.. On top of it all, you basically insinuate that IBM should get with Microsoft's program, but the irony in this is thatMicrosoft's vison is NT, which requires a 486 with 8 megs MINIMUM...God only knows (along with Bill & Co.) how much disk space NT will take up!?!?...

You are doing no one any favors by publishing trash like that. It's time for an advanced operating system NOW. OS/2 is IT at the end of March. Get with the program, Stew...

Since I switched to the 2.0 beta code this fall, I haven't been able to regress back to DOS and/or Windows, or even OS/2 1.3 which IS a good product...I'm using the Describe 3.0 32 bit beta to type this...and loving it! Most people I know who switch...even the non-technical folks, have a hard time going back to the constraint ridden (not to mention unstable) environment of DOS and Windows. Yes, I said unstable. although its not pefec, the 6.177H early code of 2.0 is generally more stable then DOS with Windows!!

Did any of the Info World folks make it to Windows/OS2 in San Jose?? I was there. IBM put on quite a performance, really showing SEAMLESS WINDOWS. It was unbeleivable (as I'm sure 1000+ cheering spectators agreed). IBM showed 21 applications open on a single machine. This was a mix of OS/2 32 and 16 bit, DOS and Windows applications, DDE, OLE, Cut & Paste, etc. It all worked without a hitch. Also a 10 minute LAN installation of the Spanish version of 2.0, and an outasight Multimedia demo. It was beyond my wildest dreams. Where was the coverage of this major event in Info World (please excuse me if I missed it)??

Howya gonna do it?? Ya gonna OS/2-it (with 32 bits). The solution (in this case) IS IBM!


 * Bob Greenberg
 * Networking Consultant