Home Computing with OS/2

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HOME COMPUTING ON OS/2
August 31, 1993
Wayne M. Caswell
IBM PSPD
COPYRIGHT  INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION 1993.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PREFACE

VISION:

              What's  the  future of computing?  Try 2.5 PCs in every home
              by the end of the  decade.    That's  the  view  of  Channel
              Marketing   Corporation,  the  Dallas  market  research  and
              consulting firm that projects that  more  than  100  million
              computers  will be sold in 1999 (not by 1999).  What are the
              market drivers?    Parents  working  more  at  home.    Kids
              Education.    Hand-held  and notebook PCs.   And interactive
              TV.(1)
              IBM  is  in  a  unique position to take the lead in computer
              growth for the home.  This is because of its  collection  of
              enabling   technologies,   skills   and   alliances.     IBM
              technologies will make  personal  computers  more  portable,
              more  powerful  and much easier to use, expanding their role
              and improving their  benefit.    As  collaborative  business
              systems,  they'll  help  you  stay  in touch with people and
              information, any time and anywhere you happen to be.  And as
              personal agents, they'll act as your  partner  and  advisor,
              letting  you  spend  more  time  with family while improving
              business effectiveness.  You'll have more freedom over where
              and when you work and live.
              This paper is intended to show existing  PC  users  how  IBM
              technologies  can  be applied to home computing applications
              and how OS/2 provides unique  benefits  as  a  PC  operating
              system for the home.  There is still much work to be done to
              make  OS/2  (and  personal  computers  in general) more of a
              consumer product, like the telephone or TV or VCR.    Almost
              every  household  in  America has a phone and TV.  Many have
              several.  Computer technology, however, is  still  too  new,
              lacks  compelling  applications, and is too difficult to use
              for many consumers to be interested.    That's  the  current
              view, but OS/2 is helping to change that view.


DISCLAIMER:

              The  information  contained  in  this  document has not been
              submitted to any formal IBM test and is  distributed  on  an
              "as  is"  basis  without  any  warranty  either  express  or
              implied.  The use of this information or the  implementation
              of  any of these techniques is a customer responsibility and
              depends on the customer's ability to evaluate and  integrate
              them  into  the  customer's operational environment.   While
              each item may have been reviewed by IBM for  accuracy  in  a
              specific  situation,  there  is  no  guarantee  that similar
              outcomes  will  result  elsewhere.   Customers attempting to
              adapt these techniques to their own environments  do  so  at
              their  own risk.   This information is not intended to be an
              assertion of  future  action  or  a  commitment  to  deliver
              products.


1   Tom Steinert-Threlkeld, "The Dallas Morning News,"  July 3, 1993, p. F1.


DIRECT COMMENTS CONCERNING THIS PAPER AND ANY CORRECTIONS TO:

              MAIL:          Wayne Caswell
                             Program Manager, Marketing Strategies
                             IBM Personal Software Products Division
                             11400 Burnet Rd.  Bldg.808, Zip 2999
                             Austin, TX  78758
              TELEPHONE:     512-823-1746 (VOICE line)
                             512-823-2733 (FAX line)
              INTERNET:      WCASWELL@VNET.IBM.COM
              PROFS:         WCASWELL at AUSVM1


              The author (and IBM) may use or distribute  any  information
              you supply in any way believed appropriate without incurring
              any obligation whatever.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

              HOME COMPUTING ON OS/2
              Operating System/2 Highlights
              A Vision of Home Computing Today
                Today's Advantages for the Work-at-home Office
                Choosing Application Software
                Telecommunications
                  Electronic Mail
                  On-line Services
                  Advanced Telephone Features
                  Voice Mail
                  Facsimile
                  Fax-on-demand
                Family Advisor
                Financial Management Software
                On-screen Reminder System
                Education and Games
                Multimedia
                Music Education
                Graphics and Photographs
                Video and TV
                Special Needs
                Voice Recognition
                Language Translation
              A Vision of Home Computing Tomorrow
                Tomorrow's Promise for the "Electronic Home"
                Home Network and Automation
                High Speed Communications
                Interactive TV
                Standards and Regulations
                Developing Applications with Reusable Objects
              Happy Home Computing Requirements
                Multitasking
                Compatibility with your PC Hardware and Applications
                Ease of Learning and Use
                Ease of Installation
                Leaving your PC up and running
                Choosing the location of your PC
                Choosing the Right Hardware
                Backup and Recovery
                Don't forget Insurance
                Preparing for Scheduling Conflicts
              Who works at Home?
              Technical Tips for OS/2 users at Home
              Can't Microsoft Windows do that?
              OS/2 Awards
              Information Sources
              Ordering Information


HOME COMPUTING ON OS/2

              OS/2  has  the  potential  to  change  the  way you use your
              computer, elevating it from hobby status to  home  appliance
              and  tool,  and  increasing its value to you and your entire
              family.  This guide includes a vision of home computing that
              happens when you leave your computer powered on  and  run  a
              multitasking  system  like  OS/2.   It then describes how to
              happily apply OS/2 technology today.  Although OS/2 is known
              as the world's  leading  system  for  enterprise  computing,
              you'll soon discover its potential in the home.


OPERATING SYSTEM/2 HIGHLIGHTS

              OS/2  2.1  is  the  latest release of IBM's award-winning PC
              operating system.   OS/2 Version  2  was  more  than  a  new
              version.    It was a new vision and a breakthrough operating
              system that exploits the power of today's 32-bit Intel-based
              processors (386, 486, etc.).  It takes your PC  applications
              beyond the limitations of the past and lets you do more with
              them than you ever could with DOS or with DOS & Windows.  It
              also lets you run tens of thousands of DOS, Windows and OS/2
              applications,  and  run  them  concurrently  -- an important
              capability for the work-at-home household.  In other  words,
              true multitasking.
              "But  wait a minute.  Why should I care about multitasking?"
              you may ask.   "I only do one thing  at  a  time."    That's
              because  your PC operating system only lets you do one thing
              at a time.  But is your dinner prepared that way?
                                  1.  Pour a drink.
                                  2.  Wait until finished drinking.
                                  3.  Prepare a salad.
                                  4.  Eat the salad.
                                  5.  Prepare a potato.
                                  6.  Eat the potato.
                                  7.  Prepare the meat.
                                  8.  Eat the meat.
                                  9.  Prepare desert.
                                  10.  ...
              No.  As ridiculous as this scenario is, it makes you  wonder
              why anything would work that way.  A cook sets up each item,
              cooking  and  switching between tasks as he feels necessary.
              A cook handles interruptions, such as a  pot  boiling  over,
              and  switches  attention  as  needed.   The potato and steak
              continue cooking (in the background) while  the  cook  takes
              the  pot  off  of  the  burner  or  prepares the desert.   A
              computer should do the same and can with  OS/2.    And  with
              OS/2 Crash Protection, each running application is protected
              from the next, so if one fails it won't affect the others.
              About  the  only  thing better than how much OS/2 can do, is
              how easily it does it all.  There's a graphical interface --
              the WorkPlace Shell -- that  makes  OS/2  easy  to  install,
              learn  and use.  And OS/2 comes with a collection of support
              services, including a toll-free number.  But maybe the  best
              part  is  that  instead  of  buying  DOS,  Windows and other
              software to get more out of your computer, you get them  all
              with  OS/2.  So for a whole lot less, OS/2 gives you a whole
              lot more.
              That's why over 2 million copies of OS/2  were  sold  during
              its  first  nine months and why hundreds of hardware vendors
              and thousands of software developers are supporting it.  And
              now version 2.1 is available with  even  more  features  and
              even better performance.
              o   OS/2 is Versatile:  It runs virtually all DOS, Windows &
                  OS/2  applications  from a single system.  OS/2 2.1 adds
                  support  for  Windows  3.1  and  Windows  Enhanced  Mode
                  applications.    You  can  even  run  Standard  Mode and
                  Enhanced Mode applications at the same time.
              o   OS/2 is Fast:  It makes the most of your 32-bit hardware
                  (Intel 386 SX and  above).    OS/2  removes  the  memory
                  limitations of DOS and gives your programs more space to
                  grow.    By  using  your  disk drive and virtual storage
                  technology, OS/2 lets your  application  programs  think
                  they each have up to 512 million bytes of memory, and it
                  does  it  automatically.    OS/2 runs the fastest 32-bit
                  applications  and  the  older  16-bit  DOS  and  Windows
                  applications.    In  general,  it  runs  them as fast or
                  faster than under DOS or Windows.
              o   OS/2 is Simple:  OS/2 includes the  Workplace  Shell,  a
                  state-of-the-art  graphical  interface that is easier to
                  learn and use than other  graphical  windowing  systems.
                  But  if you are already a Windows user and don't want to
                  take time learning a new interface, you can start any of
                  your DOS, Windows  or  OS/2  programs  from  a  familiar
                  Windows   interface.    As  you  learn  more  about  the
                  Workplace Shell, however, you'll likely make the  switch
                  to improved productivity.
              o   OS/2 is Technically Superior:  OS/2 has been praised for
                  its   Preemptive   Multitasking,  Overlapped  I/O,  High
                  Performance File System, and Crash Protection.  Although
                  most of the application examples used in this paper  can
                  be done today on DOS and Windows, this paper should show
                  why  OS/2  is  a  superior environment for running those
                  applications.
              o   OS/2  2.1  includes  built-in  Multimedia  Support:   It
                  accommodates popular sound cards and CD-ROM  drives  and
                  includes  software to support audio (record & play), and
                  and software motion video (play).
              If your computer has a 386 SX or better, you should consider
              OS/2 2.1 so you can exploit the 32-bit power you  paid  for.
              With OS/2 you can finally do the only thing you haven't been
              able to do with your computer -- make the most of it.
              OS/2's  reliable  multitasking  lets  you  leave your system
              powered on with your favorite applications just an icon away
              while service applications (such as fax  &  phone  mail  and
              energy  &  security  management) run in the background.  And
              OS/2 runs well on most of the current  systems  being  sold,
              since they are typically 386 or 486-based.


A VISION OF HOME COMPUTING TODAY

              TODAY'S ADVANTAGES FOR THE WORK-AT-HOME OFFICE


              For  the  many  people  who  work  out  of  their home, OS/2
              provides  an  ideal  operating  environment  for  productive
              multitasking.    For others, who buy a home computer so they
              can bring office work home and spend more  time  with  their
              family,  OS/2  offers  the freedom to run the DOS or Windows
              applications that you might already have at home as well  as
              the  OS/2  applications that you run at the office -- or the
              power to try new OS/2 applications at home while your office
              mates still trudge along with DOS or Windows.


              CHOOSING APPLICATION SOFTWARE


              OS/2 comes with a collection of applications and games  that
              provides   instant  productivity.    They  include  a  basic
              spreadsheet,   database,   graphics   editor,    calculator,
              calendar,  daily  planner, communications program, and more.
              And you can choose from  the  vast  selection  of  supported
              software.
                             o   DOS applications (30,000+)
                             o   Windows applications (7,000+)
                             o   16-bit OS/2 applications (2,500+)
                             o   32-bit OS/2 applications (1,300+)
              The  leading  categories  of  application  software  haven't
              changed in years.   The top five (in  order  of  popularity)
              still   include   Word   Processing,   Database  Management,
              Presentation        Graphics,        Spreadsheet,        and
              Accounting/Budgeting.    Application  software  can be found
              today  for  everything  from  writing  a  business  plan  to
              managing  sales,  advertising  and personnel.   Although new
              32-bit applications are available in all  major  categories,
              you  may  have  existing  preferences or a need to run older
              16-bit applications.  OS/2 lets you protect past investments
              while moving forward with new technologies.
              When selecting OS/2 applications some people will choose  an
              integrated package such as PFS: Works.(2) Others will choose
              individual packages from a consistent family, such  as  that
              provided by Computer Associates.(3) And  still  others  will
              select  best of breed packages in each application category,
              such as Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect.(4) But perhaps the most
              exciting applications are those new ones written from ground
              up  to  exploit the advanced 32-bit power of OS/2.  DeScribe
              is such an application.  If you desire an  OS/2  application
              that   combines  advanced  word  processing  functions  with
              powerful desktop publishing features and  extensive  drawing
              capabilities,  there's  really  just  one  word  to  know --
              DeScribe.


              TELECOMMUNICATIONS


              Whether it is facsimile or data, communications  is  one  of
              the   most   compelling   reasons  for  OS/2's  multitasking
              features.  OS/2 lets you send or receive  a  fax,  down-load
              mail  or  programs  from a BBS, and even run your own BBS in
              the background -- all while doing other  PC  tasks  such  as
              writing a letter or printing in the foreground.


              ELECTRONIC MAIL
              Forget   printing,   stuffing   envelopes,  licking  stamps,
              frantically running to  the  post  office,  and  paying  for
              overnight  services  to  meet a deadline.   With a modem and
              E-mail (as with fax) you can send memos, letters, and  other
              information  to  your  clients or suppliers around the world
              and around the clock -- at 3:00 a.m. if you like.    With  a
              press of a key, your message is signed, sealed and delivered
              to  the  right  person, on time.  E-mail can be a real time,
              money and aggravation saver.  You can use services like  MCI
              Mail  to  send  to  large distribution lists of other E-mail
              users and non-E-mail users, in which case  MCI  can  convert
              your  documents  to  fax  or printed form using your company
              letter-head.


              ON-LINE SERVICES
              In addition to sending mail electronically, you can also tap
              into large libraries of  on-line  information  to  read  the
              day's  news, see the latest stock quotes, reserve an airline
              ticket, do your banking,  and  order  anything  from  office
              supplies  to  a new wardrobe.  You can even turn your own PC
              into an on-line service  or  bulletin  board  system  (BBS),
              letting  other  PC  users access your inventory, products or
              information and place orders.   When selecting  a  modem  to
              connect  to  an  on-line service like CompuServe, Prodigy or
              America  On-line,  modem  speed  and  data  compression  are
              primary factors.


              ADVANCED TELEPHONE FEATURES
              You can use your PC and modem to add convenience features to
              your  telephone.  These include auto-dialing, automatic call
              back of busy numbers, activity reporting (especially  useful
              if   billing  for  your  time),  and  caller  identification
              (requires a phone line  feature)  to  display  the  database
              record  of  the  person  who  is  calling  or  to screen out
              unwanted calls.


              VOICE MAIL
              More  of  today's  work-at-home  offices  include  telephone
              answering  machines  (66%)  than include PCs (51.3%).(5) For
              business use, the inexpensive models that record on magnetic
              tape suffer from a lack of important features (e.g.  ability
              to  keep some messages and erase others).  Digital answering
              machines address some of these issues  but  are  costly,  as
              much   as  $200.    With  a  PC  and  OS/2  there's  another
              alternative.  Some of today's modems combine data,  fax  and
              voice  functions  and let the one-person home office compete
              with the big guys.  Voice Mail replaces the  tape  answering
              machine that doesn't cut it for business use.  People expect
              lots of choices ("press 1 for customer service; 2 for sales;
              9  for  world peace").   Data/fax/voice modems are available
              from vendors such as AT&T, Micronix, and IBM(6) (see  below)
              and cost as little as $399 including software.


              FACSIMILE
              Stand-alone  fax machines are another popular investment for
              the home office, but rather than rush out and spend $400 for
              a low-cost fax machine (or up to $3000  for  one  with  rich
              features),  consider  a fax modem instead.  A fax modem does
              everything that regular modems do, like  connecting  you  to
              services  such  as  Prodigy,  CompuServe or bulletin boards.
              But it also sends and receives faxes.   When sending  a  fax
              straight  from  your PC application, however, the quality is
              much better than sending from a fax machine.  It's almost as
              good as a laser printer.   So now your PC  can  serve  as  a
              top-of-the-line  plain-paper  fax machine capable of sending
              dozens of faxes with the push of a button.  And best of all,
              it will cost you less than  a  traditional  fax  machine  --
              under  $150  for  the  software or $300 for adapter card and
              software.
              Some sample products include:
              o   BitFax for OS/2, $99 software from  Bit  Software,  Inc.
                  (408-263-2197)
              o   FaxWorks   for   OS/2,   $149   software   from   SofNet
                  (800-432-9967)
              o   Fax/PM, from Microformatic USA (203-644-1708)
              o   Home Office, $299 retail from Prometheus Products (modem
                  & software)
              o   WinFax PRO, $119 software from Delrina Technology
              These  products  offer  a variety of rich features including
              sending faxes with your letterhead and signatures.   Getting
              them  into  your  system the first time is easy.  Just use a
              fax machine to send  your  stationery  to  yourself.    When
              broadcasting  group  faxes,  each  could  have  a  different
              message on the  cover  sheet  and  the  entire  job  can  be
              scheduled  for  midnight when long distance rates are lower.
              Incoming faxes can be forwarded to another machine when  you
              are  not  there to receive them.  And OCR (optical character
              recognition) software can convert fax images  into  editable
              text  that  takes less hard disk space to store and 50% less
              time to print.
              But there are some (usually minor) drawbacks.  You won't  be
              able  to send original paper documents without also buying a
              scanner and going through the extra  step  of  scanning  the
              document into the PC.  And faxes, especially those with lots
              of  graphics,  takes  up  lots of disk space.  You'll likely
              want to delete fax images once they are printed.  In general
              though, you'll get more fax features with a PC than  with  a
              stand-alone  unit, and you'll be able to do some neat tricks
              that just aren't possible otherwise.


              FAX-ON-DEMAND
              This technology is a merger of telephony, fax, and  database
              applications   and   was   once  only  affordable  by  large
              companies.   Your customers can now dial  into  your  PC  to
              "request"   specific  fax  documents.    Recorded  telephone
              messages prompt the user to select document numbers  through
              the  telephone  key-pad,  then  ask  for the phone number of
              their  fax  machine,  and  finally   faxes   the   documents
              automatically.      Two   examples  of  software  to  create
              fax-on-demand systems include:
              o   FaxForward,   $1,495-2,495   from    Computer    Systems
                  Integration, Inc. (401-331-1117)
              o   Open+Fax, $1,795 from Open+Voice, Inc. (214-497-9022)


              FAMILY ADVISOR


              There  are  many PC programs available that play an advisory
              role.  They cover financial Issues (budgets,  taxes,  estate
              planning,  net worth...), legal Issues (writing wills, lease
              contracts...), medical Issues (first aid, diet and  exercise
              planning...), home Repair, trip Planning, general reference,
              etc.
              Again,  most of these programs can run under DOS or Windows,
              but OS/2's multitasking can make using them more convenient.
              OS/2 can also make it easier to exchange information between
              programs, using techniques such as cut & paste, dynamic data
              exchange (DDE), object  linking  and  embedding  (OLE),  and
              more.    That's  one  reason IBM calls OS/2 "The Integrating
              Platform."


              FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE


              This is a class of home application that is  used  to  write
              checks, manage budgets, and gather data for taxes.  Examples
              include  Managing  Your Money, Microsoft Money, and Quicken.
              Information is entered only once, instead of  being  written
              on  the  check and then into the check register.  The system
              keeps track of repetitive payments to  make  even  that  one
              entry easier.
              Newer  printers  allow you to insert single checks from your
              check book, so you don't even need special forms if you want
              the computer to print your checks for you.   With the  right
              printer, you won't have to change printer paper.
              Although  this  kind  of  application  can  run under DOS or
              Windows and use any printer, you'll  find  that  it  becomes
              easier  to  justify and a joy to use if you choose the right
              printer and leave the system powered on with  OS/2  and  the
              application started and waiting in the background -- waiting
              to write your next check.


              ON-SCREEN REMINDER SYSTEM


              One  of  the most important things needed for the productive
              home-office is self-discipline.  OS/2 can't  substitute  for
              this  personal  trait,  but it can help.   It comes packaged
              with alarms, a calendar, a daily planner and  an  electronic
              sticky  pad.  And if you are already used to using the basic
              calendar that comes with Windows, you'll find that  included
              with  OS/2 too.   These simple tools can prove useful for an
              individual who has his office at home or a family that needs
              to post messages and reminders to each other.   So, you  may
              never miss another birthday or anniversary.


              EDUCATION AND GAMES


              Freedom  of  choice  is an advantage when selecting business
              software and an for  educational  software  and  games  too.
              While  you use the PC for business, your children can use it
              to create their own music videos, take imaginary trips  down
              the  Amazon,  or  practice  economic  skills  by  running  a
              dinosaur theme park.  All this in the name of education.
              Textbook  publishers  are  starting  to   produce   software
              alternatives  as  big states like California and Texas begin
              allowing textbook budgets to be spent on software.   Optical
              Data's   Windows   on  Science,  a  videodisc-based  science
              program, was adopted by the state of  Texas  in  1990  as  a
              textbook   alternative.    And  California  has  put  out  a
              framework for  education  that  requires  technology  to  be
              integrated with any printed material, especially in math, by
              1995.
              Unlike  school  software,  however,  home education products
              must compete with all other things a kid could be  doing  --
              like  watching TV, playing video games, even reading a book.
              Home software must be fun or it will become shelfware.    By
              exploiting  today's computer hardware, advanced graphics and
              sound, new programs (like  Davidson's  Math  Blaster,  which
              lets kids solve math problems by blasting numbers out of the
              sky)  have  given  birth  to  the  new term "edutainment" to
              describe software that both teaches and entertains.(7)


              MULTIMEDIA


              Two of the most exciting technologies  to  affect  education
              are  multimedia  and the optical compact disk (CD-ROM).  The
              CD-ROM drive can play music from  audio  CDs  and  can  also
              access up to 600 MB of data on computer CDs.  With access to
              so   much   storage,  the  games  and  educational  software
              delivered on CD are rich in exciting images, digitized voice
              and  music,  animated  graphics,  and  even  TV-like  video.
              Because  entire  multimedia  encyclopedias  can now fit on a
              single compact disk, more electronic encyclopedias are  sold
              today than printed ones.
              OS/2  is an ideal environment for running your DOS games and
              multimedia applications, especially if something else  needs
              to  run  as  well  (like fax or voice mail).  It effectively
              supports the heavy demands of sound,  image,  animation  and
              video  that  weren't  even  considered when DOS was written.
              Unlike word processors  and  other  business  software  that
              gracefully   wait  until  their  turn  to  use  the  central
              processor,  multimedia  applications  can't  tolerate delays
              without a loss in  presentation  quality.    Video  must  be
              delivered fast enough to not appear jerky, and sound must be
              synchronized  with  the  action.    OS/2 supports preemptive
              multitasking  that  can  guarantee  responsiveness  to  your
              multimedia  applications  so you don't have to dedicate your
              computer to running a single program.
              With  the  release  of  OS/2  2.1,  Multimedia  Presentation
              Manager/2  (MMPM/2)  is  packaged with OS/2.   It supports a
              wide variety of CD-ROM drives and sound cards and  can  even
              handle  concurrent  use  of the sound card by game and music
              software so you can listen to Mozart and the  sound  effects
              of  your  action game at the same time.  And it comes with a
              collection of sounds that are associated with system  events
              such  as opening or closing a window, picking up or dropping
              an  object,  and  information  or  warning  messages,   thus
              transforming  the  OS/2  desktop  into  a multimedia-enabled
              workplace.


              MUSIC EDUCATION


              You would  like  Johnny  to  learn  piano,  so  you  buy  an
              electronic   piano  keyboard,  and  a  software  package  is
              provided which teaches music theory  &  composition,  stores
              songs, prints sheet music from the score, and electronically
              scans  in  sheet  music  converting  it  to MIDI formats for
              editing and playback in CD quality.(8)  (see below)


              GRAPHICS AND PHOTOGRAPHS


              OS/2 can help when working with computer graphics.   Graphic
              files  with  high resolution and lots of colors can be quite
              large.  Editing them can require lots of storage, often more
              than DOS allows, especially if you have any  special  device
              drivers.    OS/2  gives your DOS applications access to more
              storage, making new functions  possible  and  improving  the
              performance    of   existing   functions.      OS/2-specific
              applications have access to even more memory and can benefit
              from 32-bit performance and virtual storage.
              The  Kodak  Photo-CD  lets  you  take  your  35mm film to be
              processed and get back the prints and an optical  disk  with
              digitized  images.   The images can be read from a CD-ROM XA
              drive and displayed on your computer.   You  can  even  edit
              copies  of  the  pictures  and print them or include them in
              documents.   With Kodak's  exciting  new  technology  and  a
              CD-ROM  XA  drive,  the  power of multimedia is available to
              anyone with a camera.


              VIDEO AND TV


              Add-on  products  like  IBM's  PS/2  TV  let  you  view   TV
              broadcasts  in  a  window  or  full  screen on your computer
              monitor.  You can simultaneously connect to  your  telephone
              and  TV  cable  to  check  the  morning  news and weather on
              Prodigy while watching The Today Show in a TV window.
              OS/2 2.1 includes built-in support of a new type  of  video,
              called  digital video, with no need for additional hardware.
              In contrast to analog video (e.g.  TV  broadcasts),  digital
              video  lets you electronically retrieve and play video clips
              from your hard disk or CD, access digital interactive TV for
              education and games, or participate in  a  video  conference
              with   someone   anywhere   in  the  world.     Advances  in
              communication speeds promise to make  video  conferencing  a
              mainstream  application,  letting  you  spend more time with
              your family or giving you more choice over where you live.


              SPECIAL NEEDS


              For most people, technology makes things easier.    For  the
              disabled,  technology  makes things possible.  The PC can be
              the window to much of the world for  the  blind  and  others
              with  vision  problems,  and it offers new hope to the deaf,
              the voiceless, slow  learners,  the  mentally  retarded,  to
              people  with  brain injuries, and -- most dramatically -- to
              those  contending with severe mobility problems.(9) When the
              appropriate equipment is attached to a PC, these people  can
              control  their  environment  and  communicate with virtually
              anyone with little or no assistance.
              A  wide array of products already exist to aid the disabled,
              including systems that talk, listen, teach, communicate  and
              translate for the user.  Although most of these products are
              designed  for  DOS,  OS/2 lets them work together with other
              applications.   Grandfather,  for  example,  has  difficulty
              reading a news paper because of his failing eye sight.  With
              OS/2  and Prodigy, he can download and read his personalized
              "electronic" newspaper, specially enlarged and displayed  on
              a  big  screen  that  has  been customized with his favorite
              colors and large fonts.
              Combined with voice recognition  and  home  automation  (see
              Home   Network  and  Automation),  the  PC  also  recognizes
              Grandfather's spoken commands so he doesn't have to  get  up
              to turn on the lights or make a phone call.


              VOICE RECOGNITION


              IBM's   desktop   dictation  technology  provides  the  most
              accurate and sophisticated speech  recognition  capabilities
              available  today.    Featuring  a 20,000 word vocabulary, it
              takes dictation at a throughput of more than  70  words  per
              minute.    What  makes  it  unique  is  its  use of advanced
              algorithms, developed by IBM Research, to analyze acoustical
              data  and  word  sequences  to  correctly   choose   between
              like-sounding  words, such as "to," "two" and "too" or "our"
              and "hour," and to recognize the start  of  a  sentence  and
              provide   capitalization.      In  addition,  IBM's  desktop
              dictation technology has navigation capabilities  which  let
              users  use  voice  commands  to  move  around  within  their
              document or the system while dictating.  You can control the
              operation of your PC using voice commands and  a  microphone
              (next is telephone and intercom).
              With voice recognition you can dictate your letters (or even
              a  book)  instead  of typing them.  When combined with voice
              synthesis software, you could call your computer to  request
              that  your  electronic mail or faxes be read to you over the
              phone and then dictate your response, which is  sent  as  if
              you had typed it.


              LANGUAGE TRANSLATION


              Within  five  years,  we'll  also start to see the impact of
              real-time language translation.  This future technology will
              let you talk to someone  in  Mexico  who  doesn't  speak  or
              understand  English.   The computer will be your translator.
              But this is FUTURE and belongs in the next section.  OS/2 is
              TODAY.


              ----------------
              2   PFS: Works for OS/2, from Spinnaker Software Corp, takes
                  full  advantage of OS/2's power and function and retails
                  for just $149.
              3   Computer  Associates  has a popular line of productivity
                  and business  software  for  Windows.    Although  these
                  packages  can  already  run under OS/2, CA is rebuilding
                  their entire line to better exploit the power of OS/2.
              4   Again  you  will  find that the DOS and Windows versions
                  run under OS/2, but the  OS/2  versions  exploit  unique
                  OS/2  functions  for added power and convenience.  As an
                  example, WordPerfect 5.2  for  OS/2  comes  filled  with
                  best-of-breed  features  and  advanced  Workplace  Shell
                  integration.     And  with  OS/2,   you   can   exchange
                  information  between applications that never knew they'd
                  be working together, so the new ones you buy  will  work
                  with the old ones you already have.
              5   Link Resources.
              6   For just $399, the IBM Mwave  WindSurfer  Communications
                  Adapter  utilizes  Mwave  technology  to consolidate the
                  separate data/FAX modem and voice messaging &  telephone
                  answering  functions  into  a  single  add-in  card with
                  supporting software  for  the  DOS/Windows  environment.
                  Even greater benefits for the home-office, however, will
                  come  with  planned OS/2 support and the programmability
                  of the Mwave Digital Signal Processor (DSP) developed by
                  IBM, Texas Instruments and Intermetrics.    Because  the
                  DSP  is  programmable,  the  WindSurfer  can acquire new
                  functions through software upgrades.  Functions such  as
                  higher   speed   modems,   stereo  sound,  MIDI,  speech
                  recognition,            text-to-speech,            image
                  compression/decompression    and   even   motion   video
                  acceleration are possible without changing the hardware.
              7   "Computer Letter," May 24, 1993, v9 n17, p. 1-7.
              8   The IBM WindSurfer provides CD quality stereo sound with
                  sample rates up  to  44.1  KHz.    Its  state-of-the-art
                  Musical  Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) sound comes
                  from digital samples of actual  instruments  instead  of
                  the  combination  of  noises  to  make  music,  a common
                  technique used in today's sound boards.
              9   IBM's  National  Support   Center   for   Persons   with
                  Disabilities  was  created  to  help  professionals  and
                  others learn how computers can enhance the work and life
                  styles of people with disabilities.  To visit the Center
                  or for more information, call 1-800-426-2133 (voice)  or
                  1-800-284-9482 (TDD).


A VISION OF HOME COMPUTING TOMORROW

              TOMORROW'S PROMISE FOR THE "ELECTRONIC HOME"


              The  previous section covered what can easily be done today.
              In this section, we'll look at the future of home computing,
              knowing that some of the applications are already in use  by
              early   adopters   today   and  that  others  are  still  in
              development.


              HOME NETWORK AND AUTOMATION


              Children studying for school on the PCs in their room  share
              information  with  the master PC in the den.  From their PC,
              they can print on the downstairs printer, or use  its  modem
              to  access  Prodigy  and dial into vast libraries, or access
              its CD-ROM drive and multimedia encyclopedia.   Today,  they
              may  use  DOS  or  Windows on desktop PCs and connect via an
              unused phone line, but soon they'll use sub-notebook systems
              and wireless networks.   You too will  use  sub-notebook  or
              hand-held  computers and wirelessly connect to mail services
              or your home computer, keeping in touch anytime and anywhere
              you happen to be.
              But your home network can connect more  than  just  personal
              computers.    It  can  also  include an array of intelligent
              devices for complete home automation.   As  appliances  gain
              computer   intelligence,  the  differences  between  PC  and
              intelligent  device  will  blur.    You'll  likely  see   PC
              technology  in  televisions and could even see it built into
              the refrigerator door.  Wouldn't it be neat to network  your
              bathroom  scale  to  the refrigerator, automatically locking
              the fridge door if your weight exceeds a preset limit?   I'm
              just  kidding, although that may not be a bad idea.  Here is
              a sample of what "is" possible with today's technology.
                   Adrian, our 9 year old, is watching the TV in  the  den
                   while  gathering  goodies  from  the kitchen.   When he
                   takes his snack to his room, the TV in his  room  turns
                   on  to  the  same  channel, and the TV in the den turns
                   off.  When it's study time, he's not allowed access  to
                   the  TV  at  all.    The  rest of the time he can watch
                   programming that has been selected for him, such as The
                   Discovery Channel.  And certain channels, such  as  HBO
                   or  MTV  have  been reserved as rewards, to be paid for
                   with earned credits.  If Adrian doesn't get  home  from
                   school  on  time and enter his security code, we get an
                   automatic phone call.
                   During  the week, Yvonne and I go to bed about 11:00 PM
                   after watching the news.   Before retiring,  we  use  a
                   telephone  key pad (or intercom with voice recognition)
                   to start a script of commands that turns  off  the  TV,
                   arms  the security system, puts the lighting into sleep
                   mode, and sets the thermostat.   If Yvonne gets  up  at
                   2:00  AM  to  get  a  cold  drink from the kitchen, the
                   security system tracks her movement and turns lights on
                   in front of her and off behind her.  If the system  had
                   detected  an unexpected presence (a potential burglar),
                   it would have tripped an alarm and announced the likely
                   point of break in.
                   In the morning, a second script  starts  at  a  pre-set
                   time,  turns  up  the  thermostat and hot water heater,
                   turns on the bathroom lights, opens the curtains to let
                   the light in, and wakes Yvonne and I with our  favorite
                   music.    I  respond  with a command, "Computer, Access
                   Calendar," and voice recognition software  responds  to
                   my  command  to  access  today's  activities,  and then
                   "reads" them through the intercom  speaker.    I  might
                   then ask for yesterday's articles on IBM, the status of
                   stocks I'm tracking, or a summary of my net worth.
                   I control the operation of my house the same way that I
                   control other PC programs.  For example I might use the
                   mouse,  icon  objects,  and drag & drop capabilities of
                   OS/2's WorkPlace Shell to  re-program  home  automation
                   tasks.    First I click on the House icon, which brings
                   up a scanned-in picture of our  floor  plan.    Then  I
                   click  on  the master bedroom, which zooms in with more
                   detail so I can select both lamps on either side of the
                   bed.  The right mouse button shows the functions of the
                   lamp  objects  in  the  same  way  that  it  shows  the
                   functions  of  all  other objects in OS/2.   Instead of
                   using a mouse, I could also control my PC or house with
                   a keyboard, touch screen or voice commands.
                   The computer  now  acts  as  my  partner  and  advisor,
                   letting me spend more time with family while helping me
                   improve  business  effectiveness.    And  I  have  more
                   control of where and when I work and live.
              These Home Automation benefits have long been available  for
              technofanatics  willing  to pay $20,000 to $200,000.  Now it
              is possible, at reasonable prices,  to  link  once  separate
              systems    (telephony,    security,    voice    recognition,
              heating/cooling,    lighting    and    appliance    control,
              audio/visual,  etc.)    into  an  integrated whole -- a Home
              Network.  And Home Automation saves money,  cutting  utility
              bills an average of 20% - 30%.(10)
              If  the  PC  plays  a  role  in home automation today, it is
              typically just to program a  stand-alone  controller  device
              and  then disconnect.  That's because of the relatively high
              cost of dedicating a PC to control and monitoring functions.
              But with a multitasking operating system  (OS/2)  and  a  PC
              that  is  already  purchased for other functions, it becomes
              easier to justify having the PC play a greater  role.    One
              advantage  of  using the PC as home automation controller is
              the ability to include artificial intelligence  features  so
              your  system learns your habits and acts accordingly, making
              useful suggestions.   Another advantage is  the  ability  to
              access more information (e.g. weather and utility rates that
              may  change  hourly)  so  it  can better determine the least
              expensive time to water the  lawn  or  run  the  washer  and
              dryer.


              HIGH SPEED COMMUNICATIONS


              Key  to  our  nation's  success  in the Industrial Age was a
              transportation system that moved raw materials to  factories
              and   then  on  to  consumers.    As  we  move  through  the
              Information Age, our success  depends  on  a  communications
              system based on an "information highway," as proposed by the
              Clinton  Administration.   High speed communications will be
              one of the most important technologies for the future.    It
              will  affect how we live, where we live and the landscape of
              our cities, just as electricity did in the early 1900s.
              Our grandparents may have had  electric  lights,  but  there
              were  few  electric motors.   Nothing to spin the laundry or
              run the dish washer or play  the  VCR.    So  they  couldn't
              imagine  how  air  conditioning  and  elevators  would bring
              people together into tall buildings.   Today,  we  are  just
              starting  to  imagine  the  impact of personal computing and
              high speed communications.
              The nation is being rewired with fiber optics.  When you see
              cable companies digging up the street, you can bet they  are
              laying new fiber, and the same goes for telephone companies.
              We  expect  to  see  multi-gigabit/sec  phone  lines  in the
              mid-90's and speeds measured in  terabits/sec  by  the  year
              2000.    (At  1  Tbit/sec,  you  could ship the Encyclopedia
              Britanica in 1.5 milliseconds!).


              INTERACTIVE TV


              The fiber that eventually finds its way into your home  will
              carry   all   kinds   of  information  services  (telephone,
              newspaper, home shopping, home banking, mail, etc), but  the
              most compelling application is likely to be Interactive TV.
              Cable  companies  want  to  replace  movie rental companies,
              giving you the ability to select from  thousands  of  titles
              for  viewing  when  you  want  to  instead  of when they are
              broadcast, pausing for breaks when you want  to  instead  of
              when  the  networks decide to.  As you might imagine, rental
              companies like Block Buster Video and networks like CBS  and
              NBC  view this as competition and opportunity.  But consider
              the benefits to the consumer:
              o   ELECTRONIC TV GUIDE:  Downloaded to your PC once a week,
                  the electronic TV guide helps you find your way  through
                  the  greatly expanded collection of programming that has
                  become available.  You search through available programs
                  by key word and schedule automatic video taping of  your
                  favorites.  You'll be guided along by your computer with
                  new  user  interfaces  that make programming today's VCR
                  seem like programming computers in COBOL,  and  your  PC
                  will   learn   your  preferences  and  make  appropriate
                  suggestions.
              o   INTERACTIVE TV EDUCATION:  Students can  participate  in
                  interactive education through their TV, having access to
                  the  world's  best  specialists in their field of study.
                  Teachers can reach  more  students,  and  students  have
                  access  to more teachers and subject experts. Multimedia
                  and the ability  to  pull  the  best  teachers  together
                  electronically  can  enrich  the  learning  process  and
                  better prepare our  children  to  compete  in  a  global
                  society and do this at less cost.
              o   SEARCH,  CUT  &  PASTE:   Johnny can search for specific
                  still images or video clips for a book report using  key
                  words and hyperlinks.  He then pastes the image or video
                  into   his   document.      His  "report"  is  submitted
                  electronically, and the teacher clicks  on  an  icon  to
                  view the video.
              o   JUST-IN-TIME  EDUCATION:   You can view portions of "how
                  to" videos right when you need them and  without  having
                  to view the entire video, just the part about fixing the
                  leak  under the sink.  If you need more help, you can be
                  connected to an expert through video conferencing.
              o   VIDEO CONFERENCING:   You initially were  excited  about
                  the  potential  need  for  less business travel, but you
                  discover that the real benefit is your ability to  bring
                  collections  of  experts  together  more quickly.   This
                  gives you a competitive edge -- from your home, which is
                  now on the beach or in  the  mountains.    Some  of  the
                  experts  you include in your conference don't even speak
                  English, but their PCs translate for them.  You  realize
                  that  you  are no longer constrained to hire talent from
                  within a limited geography but have access to the world.
                  The  result  is  that  nations  who   succeed   in   the
                  Information Age are the ones who had vision and invested
                  in infrastructure -- "The Information Highway."
              "Wo  ha!   Let's get back down to earth!  Is all this really
              going to happen?" you say.  Yep... and more, but  your  mind
              may already be spinning (mine is).


              STANDARDS AND REGULATIONS


              Change  of  this  magnitude brings large challenges, many in
              the area  of  standards.    IBM  is  committed  to  industry
              standards   and   currently  sits  on  over  3500  standards
              committees around the world.  With all of the arguments over
              standards and who has access to the fiber, the FCC still has
              not yet decided who will get the right to bring it into your
              home and what services will be allowed on it.  The  politics
              are  overwhelming,  as  are the opportunities.  At stake are
              the fortunes of companies and the viability of nations.


              DEVELOPING APPLICATIONS WITH REUSABLE OBJECTS


              Hardware technology is coming at us so fast that one thing's
              for sure:  Software will have a hard time keeping up  if  we
              develop  it  like  we  have  in the past.   Fortunately, the
              industry  is   moving   to   the   use   of   reusable   and
              interchangeable  objects (e.g. object-oriented programming),
              much like interchangeable  parts  for  cars.    Objects  can
              represent  program  segments  (such as a video player), data
              files (the compressed video), or hardware  devices  (e.g.  a
              wall  switch).   You can combine objects to make new objects
              to perform specific services, such  as  downloading  various
              pieces   of   information  from  Prodigy  each  morning  and
              presenting it in the format you like, or making it available
              for programmed tasks (e.g. water the lawn at 4:00 AM  if  it
              is dry and no rain is predicted).
              We'll  soon see tools that make it easy for many PC users to
              create their own applications, simply  by  dragging  objects
              around on the screen and connecting them.  You'll be able to
              combine  your  favorite  word  processor object and favorite
              spell  checker  (from  different  vendors  and  written   in
              different   computer  languages).    You'll  then  select  a
              graphics  conversion  utility  and  a  drawing  tool  and  a
              business   graphics   engine   that   can  be  linked  to  a
              spreadsheet.  With access to hundreds of fonts and clip  art
              from  several  types of libraries, you put your presentation
              together to be shown with  a  presentation  tool  from  even
              another  vendor.    It all snaps together seemlessly and you
              have made your customized version  of  --  Lotus  Freelance.
              Lotus  and  WordPerfect and others will sell class libraries
              of reusable objects so you can pick and choose.   You'll  be
              able to access objects that are stored on your own system or
              ones  that  are  stored on some remote system on a different
              kind of computer.
              IBM has a powerful, open, distributed  object  strategy  for
              the  future  and  a  defined  platform  in  OS/2  for object
              exploitation today with the Workplace Shell,  System  Object
              Module  (SOM) and Distributed SOM (DSOM).  Our technology is
              being developed with partners like Apple,  HP  and  Sun,  is
              being  shared  with standards bodies, and is consistent with
              CORBA of OMG (Common  Object  Request  Broker  Architecture,
              endorsed by the Object Management Group).


              ----------------
              10  "Smart Houses: Getting Switched On," Business Week, June
                  28, 1993, p.128.

HAPPY HOME COMPUTING REQUIREMENTS

              This  section  describes how to implement the dream with the
              least effort.  IBM's vision of the future of home  computing
              isn't  that  much  different  from  that  of  a  dozen other
              companies.   What is different is  how  it  takes  you  from
              today's realities to tomorrow's promise.  OS/2 is a key part
              of  IBM's  software  plan  for delivering that promise.   It
              improves the quality of the journey by eliminating  many  of
              the  pains,  migrations,  upgrades,  and relearning that you
              might otherwise expect.


              MULTITASKING


              Because users should not have to  turn  off  their  fax  and
              voicemail applications or shut down their security system in
              order  to write a letter, this is the #1 requirement for the
              Vision  portrayed  here.     OS/2  offers  fast   and   safe
              multitasking  so you don't have to wait on your computer and
              so you can make these visions become real.


              COMPATIBILITY WITH YOUR PC HARDWARE AND APPLICATIONS


              Because people don't like too much change, however, any  new
              operating  system  must be compatible with existing hardware
              and applications.  For this reason, IBM has tested  OS/2  on
              hundreds  of  32-bit  IBM-compatible  computers and offers a
              money-back guarantee if it won't run on yours, given  enough
              memory  and  disk.    OS/2  comes with more than 260 printer
              device drivers for all of the leading printers.  It supports
              all of the most popular CD-ROM drives and  their  associated
              SCSI  adapters.    Leading  audio/sound  adapters  are  also
              supported.(11)
              OS/2 excels  in  application  compatibility  too,  with  its
              ability  to  run  virtually  any  DOS  or  Windows  or  OS/2
              application.  It also has a strong evolutionary future  that
              lets  you  expand  your  system without constant upgrades to
              application software.


              EASE OF LEARNING AND USE


              The user interface  must  be  intuitive  and  easy  to  use,
              because  the  biggest barrier to wide-spread use of personal
              computers has  been  the  effort  to  learn  and  apply  the
              technology.    We've  come  a  long way since the DOS prompt
              (C:>),  with  graphical user interfaces.   OS/2 goes further
              still and sets new standards for ease of learning  and  use,
              with  its  object-oriented  user interface.   Objects on the
              OS/2 desktop (folders, files, printers, disk  drives,  etc.)
              act  just like everyday objects.  To print a file, just drag
              it over to the printer; to put  it  away,  drag  it  into  a
              folder;  to  delete it, drag it to the shredder.  OS/2 users
              LOVE OS/2!
                   "I find this system so convenient and uncomplicated  to
                   use  that  most  of  my time is spent fighting my SEVEN
                   YEAR OLD son for control of my computer.   I feel  that
                   IBM has once again proven that it is not only the front
                   runner  of microcomputer technology, but also the trail
                   blazer of times to come!" DONALD K. CHAMPINE,  SECURITY
                   PACIFIC AUTOMATION COMPANY, INC. IN SEATTLE, WA.


              EASE OF INSTALLATION


              New  system  software  should  also  be easy to install with
              minimal training.    Ideally  there  would  be  no  training
              required  for  family  members,  and  OS/2  lives up to that
              ideal.  It is important, however, to have someone  technical
              enough  to  take  charge  of  installing  and setting up the
              system for other family members.  When installing  OS/2  for
              the first time, some have described the experience like that
              of  moving into a new house.  "There are always a few things
              that take a while to find, but the pain of  moving  is  soon
              forgotten and well worth the benefit."
              OS/2  2.1  ships on over 20 diskettes (or on CD-ROM), and no
              matter what IBM does, this still seems overwhelming to  many
              potential  users.    IBM  is  evaluating various options for
              turn-key packages for the  home  markets,  recognizing  that
              delivering  the  Vision of this paper requires more computer
              skill than we'd like.
              Currently, the easiest way to  install  OS/2  is  to  buy  a
              system  that has it pre-installed.  If you are buying from a
              retail store  today,  the  systems  you'll  find  with  OS/2
              pre-installed may be IBM systems, but we are now seeing more
              PC  manufacturers  willing  to pre-install OS/2 upon request
              and hope to see this as a standard practice in the future.


              LEAVING YOUR PC UP AND RUNNING


              Rather than turning on your PC,  running  your  application,
              and turning it off, you might decide to just keep it on with
              your  favorite  applications  already  started  and running.
              This is especially attractive when running  a  sophisticated
              system  like  OS/2  (or  DOS  with Windows and lots of other
              extensions) because of the time to boot up.


              CHOOSING THE LOCATION OF YOUR PC


              Where you put your computer depends on its intended use  and
              users.  Because 75% of PC-owning households are work-at-home
              households, many people put their PC in a home-office.  That
              can  be  a  spare  room, a corner of a room, or even a large
              closet.  A home-office can provide privacy and a way to hide
              office  clutter  while  protecting  equipment  and  work  in
              process.  And when company calls, just close the door.  This
              works  especially  well  if you are the only person who will
              use the system and may be required if you want  to  take  an
              income tax deduction for home-office expenses.
              If,  however,  you put your system out in the open (e.g. den
              or kitchen)(12) and leave it always powered on and ready  to
              use,  you should find new uses... and new users -- the whole
              family.  This is ideal if your objective is kids  education,
              family  entertainment, managing health and finances, or home
              automation.


              CHOOSING THE RIGHT HARDWARE


              SIZE -- One way to save space and avoid conflicts with  home
              decor  is with the new notebook PCs.  They can also be moved
              into a quiet room for privacy, possibly eliminating the need
              for a dedicated home-office.  Besides being  portable,  they
              are  smaller,  quieter,  and consume less power than desktop
              PCs;  and  they  have suspend/resume features.   Rather than
              close your OS/2 applications and turn off the power, you can
              simply close the cover of the notebook, putting  the  system
              into  "suspend  mode"  and saving energy.  Opening the cover
              brings the system back to life with all of your applications
              loaded and running, just like you left them.  Newer  desktop
              PCs may have similar suspend/resume features that cause them
              to use less power during periods of inactivity and "wake up"
              when input is sensed (from keyboard, mouse, fax, etc).
              Many  people will choose desktop PCs instead of notebook PCs
              because of larger hard disks, more expansion slots or  lower
              cost  (especially  when  fitted with a color monitor).  Some
              will  choose  to  have  both  and  may  even  want  them  to
              communicate in a network.
              MEMORY & DISK -- OS/2 offers a lot of power and function but
              does require more memory and disk than native DOS.  OS/2 can
              support   simple  DOS  applications  with  as  little  as  4
              megabytes (MB) of memory, but Windows  users  will  be  more
              satisfied with 8MB or more.  And OS/2 needs 15 to 40  MB(13)
              of  available  disk  space  for all of its function, on-line
              documentation,  built-in  applications,  and  scalable  type
              fonts.    Almost  all  systems  sold  today are already OS/2
              capable, and some have OS/2 pre-loaded.
                   "I was reluctant to move to OS/2 2.0, but now  I  can't
                   imagine  using  anything else.  If you have the horses,
                   you're crazy not to try it, folks, no matter what  they
                   say.    It  takes  55  minutes  to install, and if your
                   hardware can handle it, the  software  is  rock  solid,
                   just  like  the  OS/2  nutballs say it is...   It's not
                   particularly fun to tell  these  guys  that  they  were
                   right." JOHN C. DVORAK, PC MAGAZINE, AUGUST 1992.
              PROCESSOR -- By "horses," John Dvorak is referring to memory
              and  disk  storage,  as  OS/2  doesn't  have  the  voracious
              appetite for processor speed that  Windows  has,  thanks  to
              genuine  preemptive multithreading.  Processor speed is less
              of an issue when you don't have to wait for one  application
              to complete before moving on to the next and when background
              applications   don't   interfere   with  the  useability  of
              foreground applications as they do with Windows.  While some
              people always want the fastest computer they can buy, others
              believe that because of OS/2, the muscle computer  could  go
              the way of the muscle car.
                   "Today it's not important how well your automobile runs
                   at  120  MPH,  but  how  well it does at 55.  OS/2 will
                   allow  productivity  to  be  measured  in  multitasking
                   versatility,  not  sheer  velocity."  EDWIN BLACK, OS/2
                   PROFESSIONAL, NOVEMBER 1992.
              SUPPORT -- When users run their home-office or  entire  home
              on  a  PC, support can become critical and vendor reputation
              deserves strong consideration.  Now you can buy PCs from IBM
              and Apple at Sears instead of Zeos and Gateway  through  the
              mail.


              BACKUP AND RECOVERY


              Your  PC  is likely the most important piece of equipment in
              your home-office, so take care of it and backup your  system
              faithfully.    Neglecting this important rule is common with
              DOS and  Windows  users,  because  when  backup  is  running
              nothing  else  does.   With OS/2 it is easier.  As expected,
              OS/2 comes with backup and restore utilities.   They can  be
              used  to backup parts of your system while you work actively
              on other parts.  Or you can choose add-on products that make
              backup even easier and support a wide  variety  of  devices,
              such as diskette, 4mm Digital Audio Tape, 8mm tape, and 3.5"
              rewritable optical disks.(14)


              DON'T FORGET INSURANCE


              Another way  of  protecting  yourself  and  your  home-based
              business  is  with insurance.  Homeowner and renter policies
              can cover your computer equipment and software for a  modest
              additional  premium.    They  are often limited to $5,000 or
              $10,000 which should be enough for most home offices but may
              may  not  be  enough  for a sophisticated one, including its
              software.  In any case, check with your insurance company.


              PREPARING FOR SCHEDULING CONFLICTS


              You can  encourage  PC  use  and  increase  PC  benefits  by
              matching  convenience with the excitement and power of OS/2.
              Even small families, however, should prepare for  scheduling
              conflicts  as described by OS/2 users.  They say it's like a
              late model sports car with  an  innovative  new  body  on  a
              racing chassis and with an awesome new turbo-charged engine.
              As  such, it surpasses the popular windowing systems such as
              Microsoft Windows that simply put  a  new  body  over  DOS's
              Volkswagen  engine.  When you get familiar with working with
              OS/2 and past the "ah-ha" stage, you too will find that OS/2
              is a dream to drive.  And just like the conflict  when  your
              son wants to borrow your car but you need it to run errands,
              expect  scheduling  conflicts with your PC.  You may need to
              plan your home-office  time  so  it  doesn't  conflict  with
              school  and  entertainment time (or even include a second PC
              in a network for your kids and spouse).
                   "I write to you now as a last resort.  You see, I  have
                   lost  my  boyfriend to OS/2.  For the last two weeks he
                   as been locked in the computer room as if he was a  mad
                   scientist  on  the  verge  of a momentous discovery.  I
                   knock, I pound, I whimper into  the  keyhole,  I  slide
                   notes  under the door; and to no avail...  I could hear
                   him cackling with glee and often I  heard  awe  in  his
                   voice  that sounded as if he were witnessing the second
                   coming...  I must go in after him.  Clearly this man of
                   mine cannot help himself.   The temptation of  OS/2  is
                   too  great.    He is hooked and I am the only chance he
                   has left...   If  you  can't  beat  em,  join  em!"  L.
                   CHRISTIAN CANDELMIRE, UNIVERSITY OF CA AT BERKELEY.


              ----------------
              11  Kevin Maier, "What's New in OS/2 2.1," Personal Software
                  Technical Newsletter, Issue 1 1993, p.3.
              12  A computer for  the  den  or  breakfast  room,  however,
                  should  be  small, quiet, and fit into the room's decor.
                  And a computer used for home automation to  save  energy
                  should  itself  be energy efficient.  IBM's new PS/2E is
                  an example of the first "Green PCs" to ship this summer.
                  It consumes just 23 watts of peak power and 16 watts  in
                  suspend  mode  (vs  180 watts for the average PC), so it
                  needs no noisy cooling fan.  It comes with a 10.4"  flat
                  color display (active matrix LCD, 256 color VGA) and can
                  operate  vertically  in  a  book shelf or be hung on the
                  wall.  And it's made of recyclable materials.
              13  Two   products   have   been   announced   that  support
                  "on-the-fly" disk compression.   STACKER  2.0  (by  Stac
                  Electronics)   is   available   now,   and  DCF/2  (Disk
                  Compression Facility for OS/2, by Proportional Software)
                  will be available in the second  half  of  1993.    Disk
                  compression  of  up to 50% is possible.  This means that
                  OS/2 might take just 8-20MB, and all other  applications
                  and  files  would be compressed as well.  The difference
                  between the two packages is that Stacker compresses  the
                  entire  disk  partition  (easiest), while DCF/2 lets you
                  tune  performance  by  choosing   what   is   compressed
                  (fastest,  but  slightly  more  complex).    Stacker was
                  designed for DOS and is  being  ported  to  OS/2,  while
                  DCF/2  was  designed  for OS/2 and supports both FAT and
                  HPFS file systems.
              14  Sytos  Plus,  by  Sytron Corporation, is a complete OS/2
                  backup soluiton capable of  handling  HPFS  files,  long
                  pathnames  up to 260 characters and Exteneded Attributes
                  of OS/2 files.   A  companion  product,  Sytos  Rebound,
                  extends  recovery  even further.  To find out more, call
                  1-800-3IBM-OS2 (1-800-465-7999 in Canada).


WHO WORKS AT HOME?

              When  the  bureaucracy of a large company makes it difficult
              to buy new  software  or  when  users  don't  have  time  to
              experiment, the home PC takes on a new and hidden role -- as
              a  place  to  learn  new  computer skills and to try out new
              software applications.  Even though IBM's heritage has  been
              solving  the business computing needs of large corporations,
              there is a need to understand the interests and  motivations
              of the home worker.  This is partially because user opinions
              and  preferences that affect corporate standards often start
              at home.  But interest in this market isn't just limited  to
              its  affect  on  large  corporations.    Its an exciting and
              growing market where IBM can apply leadership technologies.
              The following is from the 7th  survey  of  2,500  households
              done by  Link  Resources.(15)  It  covers  the  work-at-home
              market segment but ignores other home uses of PCs.
              THE   NEW   ENTREPRENEUR   (12.1  M  individuals  in  9.6  M
              households) -- These self-employed, full-time workers depend
              on the business they run out of their home for their primary
              income.  For this reason, they tend to spend  more  on  home
              PCs,   fax   machines   and   telephone   services  than  do
              moonlighters and corporate homeworkers.   Owning  the  right
              home-office equipment is important, and if they believe OS/2
              or  any  other  new  product  will  help bring in more cash,
              they'll buy.
              A subset of New Entrepreneur is the person who's  home-based
              business  is  fulfilling  a life long dream.  Because making
              money is relatively unimportant to them, they  tend  to  buy
              equipment  impulsively  with  little regard to its financial
              justification.
              THE CONTRIBUTOR (11.7 M individuals in 9.2 M households)  --
              This    segment    includes   people   who   are   part-time
              self-employed, who are moonlighting,  or  who  do  freelance
              work.    They  contribute  to  family income and increase in
              numbers during hard economic times in  order  to  help  make
              ends  meet.  With less earning power than New Entrepreneurs,
              Contributors tend to buy more portable PCs, but they  invest
              more cautiously.
              THE CORPORATE EAGER BEAVER (8.4 M households) -- These days,
              many  corporate employees bring work home from the office in
              the evenings or on weekends so they can compete  with  their
              peers  while  spending  more  time with their family.   Link
              Resources reports that 54% of them have a PC  at  home,  but
              since they also have access to equipment at the office, they
              tend  to  buy  only  the essentials for home.  Although some
              corporations help Eager Beavers  fund  equipment  purchases,
              most are on their own.
              A  subset  of  Corporate  Eager  Beavers  are principals and
              senior executives with large corporations.  Financially well
              off, they occasionally work from home  rather  than  in  the
              office  for  reasons  of  convenience, productivity and life
              style.  Although spending levels may vary by  industry,  PCs
              and advanced communications are essential.
              THE  TELECOMMUTER (6.6 M individuals in 4.9 M households) --
              More and more companies are allowing employees to  work  out
              of the home at least 1 day a week.  This cuts down on travel
              time,    improves   productivity   by   eliminating   office
              distractions, and lets the company keep  valuable  employees
              (such  as  new  mothers)  who  might  otherwise  quit.    By
              supporting telecommuting, companies may also have access  to
              a   larger  skill  base,  because  they  aren't  limited  by
              geography.  They often save on expensive real  estate  costs
              and  can  support a larger customer base with fewer offices.
              With a strong need to stay in touch with the company  office
              and customers, communications is extremely important.
              THE   CASUAL  HOMEWORKER  (77.3  M  individuals  in  48.7  M
              households) -- This  larger  group  brings  work  home  only
              occasionally.  Because their interest in a home PC is driven
              by  motivations  other  than work (such as kids education or
              family finance), they  are  not  included  in  most  of  the
              analysis of the Link Resources study.
              ----------------
              15  Thomas E. Miller, "Home Office Overview," Report #01358,
                  Link  Resources  Corp.  (a  New  York based research and
                  consulting firm), March 1993.


OTHER INTERESTING HOMEWORKER STATISTICS

              o   39.0  M Americans (out of 124.5 M USA worker population)
                  work at home part time or full time, rising to 49  M  in
                  1996.
                     -  primary self-employed   (12.1M)
                     -  part-time self-employed (11.7M, e.g. moonlighting)
                     -  corporate after-hours   (8.4M, e.g. bring work
                        home)
                     -  company telecommuter    (6.6M, e.g. formal
                        arrangement with employer)
              o   75%   of   PC-owning   households   are   "work-at-home"
                  households,  going  to  80-85% by 1995.   This has major
                  implications for applications & packaging.
              o   Home PC demand will likely be driven by:
                     -  Government incentives or requirements favoring
                        telecommuting
                     -  Corporate downsizing creating new opportunities
                        for small business
                     -  Baby boom workforce  demographics reaching prime
                        work-at-home age (35-54)
                     -  Economic  pressures to supplement income through
                        moonlighting
                     -  Family time pressures on dual-income families
                     -  Desire for more flexibility and control of family
                        and work life
                     -  Continued  ease-of-use improvements & increasing
                        computer literacy
                     -  Increases  in  portable computing and wireless
                        communications
                     -  Price/performance curve (e.g. low cost 486 systems
                        vs expensive people)
                     This  will  drive  demand  for more PC households and
                     more PCs per household.
              o   Many small businesses start in the home, and paradigms
                  start here.
                     -  20% of businesses located in office or industr ial
                        areas started in the home, including such  well
                        known companies as Apple, Dell, and Ford.
                     -  56% of ALL US businesses have less than 5
                        employees!!! (3.6 M)
                     -  20% have 6-9 employees (1.3 M)
                     -  25% have 10-100 employees (.8 M)
                     -  .01% have > 1000 employees (.006 M)
              o   1st time buyer motives:
                     70.2% for business work-at-home.  They need
                       "application suites"
                     38.5% for home finance/budgeting/taxes
                     33.7% for children's education, with increasing need
                       for multimedia
                     17.3% to learn more about computers
                     13.5% because of improved price/performance
                     11.5% because it's important to have a PC at home
                     Satisfying these demands requires bundled,
                       plug-n-play solutions (e.g. IBM PS/1, Mwave,
                       CD-ROM, and OS/2 apps).
              o   2nd time buyer motives:
                     43.9% out-growing current system capabilities
                     36.4% improved price/performance
                     Satisfying these demands requires compatibility with
                       current applications, devices & skills.
              o   Many experts say $1000 is the key price point, but
                     -  1989 average home PC = $1550
                     -  1992 average home PC = $1875, plus $962 for
                        peripherals and $416 for software ($3253 total).
                     -  PC spending increases with time spent working at
                        home
                     -  $12.3 Billion market for home-office PCs, up 27%
                        from $9.7 Billion in 1991.
                        This discounts other home PC use.
              o   Home information products now comprise 25% of ALL
                  consumer electronics.
              o   28% PC penetration (in '92), going to 32% (in '95)
              o   55% penetration for  incomes > $100K (only about 4M
                  households), but interest in PCs is increasing for lower
                  incomes ($30-100K).
              o   62.2% of home-office users run DOS applications.
              o   28.3% of home-office users run Windows applications, up
                  from 25.1% in 1991.  83.2% of Windows users said they
                  actually use it.
              o   4.0 M households have either  a  standalone or PC fax
                  device, up 82% from 2.2 M in 1991.


TECHNICAL TIPS FOR OS/2 USERS AT HOME

              I  started  my  son, Adrian, with Early Games by SpringBoard
              Software when he was 2  years  old.    I  made  a  cardboard
              template  to  cover  all but the numeric keys.  First topic:
              recognize shapes (6 vs 9, 3 vs 8, 1 vs  7)  and  names  (I'd
              pronounce   each  new  number  when  it  appeared).    Next:
              recognize values (9 is larger than 6) by counting the number
              of blocks and choosing the corresponding key.  Adrian is now
              9 and is an OS/2 user.
              Most agree that OS/2 sets new levels in ease of learning and
              use (especially for kids) and is fairly forgiving.    It  is
              still  wise,  however, to have someone set up the system for
              the rest of the family.    Here  are  some  tips  that  I've
              learned from experience and from talking to others:
              o   Small  children  make  wrong  choices on purpose (to see
                  what happens), like holding  down  the  keys  until  the
                  keyboard  buffer  fills  and the system beeps endlessly.
                  They aren't intimidated by computers.
              o   Watch out for miscellaneous objects  inserted  into  the
                  diskette  drives.   Watching me insert diskettes, my son
                  inserted keys, coins, candy, and other objects.   Assume
                  that  he'll  try  to do anything he watches you do.  The
                  diskette problem went away with  parental  guidance  and
                  computer literacy (age 3-4 in my case).
              o   Get  rid of the shredder.  Put it in the "Dad" folder or
                  delete it completely.  You don't need  it  anyway  since
                  the   right-mouse-button   menu   includes   a  "delete"
                  function.
              o   Hide things in the OS/2 System  Folder  that  you  don't
                  want  the  rest  of  the family using, such as Shredder,
                  Templates, and other items the install process  puts  on
                  the  desktop  for you.   It gets them out of the way and
                  makes the desktop cleaner.
              o   Set-up all the folders for  the  kids  and  spouse  with
                  shadows  of  the program objects.  This way even if they
                  delete  the  shadow  object,  they  won't   delete   the
                  original.
              o   Have  the  system come up with the GAMES folder open and
                  set it up with icons that children know.  I "window" the
                  DOS session long enough to "cut"  out  a  representative
                  graphics and "paste" into the icon editor.
              o   Make unique folders for each child with attractive icons
                  that let them know that this is the part of the computer
                  they  are  allowed and encouraged to use.  Put the icons
                  in an obvious place, and make the resulting folder large
                  enough to cover most of the desktop.
              o   Teach  your  child how to "shut down" and scold him when
                  he forgets.   Some  have  even  made  a  "turn  off  the
                  computer"  icon.    At  risk is that some of your system
                  changes may not be saved or that  disk  output  may  not
                  have completed yet.  Shutting down is most important for
                  users  who've  chosen  the  High Performance File System
                  (HPFS), but it's not that big of a deal  to  wait  while
                  recovering  the  Swap  file if young ones do forget, but
                  they quickly learn the rule.
                  Chuck Brazie agrees that shutting down is not a problem.
                  "My 4 year old  likes  Reader  Rabbit,  Mixed  up  Fairy
                  Tales,  the  puzzle  applet, and even playing with Corel
                  Draw.  She can shutdown the system like a champ, and she
                  waits for the 'little box to  turn  into  the  big  box'
                  before  powering  off.   The 10 year old likes Operation
                  Neptune, the Carmen  San  Diego  Series,  Mario  Teaches
                  Typing, Oregon Trail, Mahjong, and even experiments with
                  Basic and Rexx programs."
              o   Protect  your  .INI files.   Gene Fine warns that OS/2's
                  ease of  use  can  cause  curious  side  effects.    "My
                  daughter  gets  a  blast  out  of bringing up the scheme
                  palette, with the help  of  my  son,  and  changing  the
                  colors  to  those  of her likings.  One night I booted a
                  screen with Barbie colors (yuk!), a pink background, and
                  other changes."  This can be avoided by maintaining  and
                  restoring  backup copies of .INI files.  (e.g. add XCOPY
                  of .INI files in STARTUP.CMD).    There  are  also  free
                  utilities  available  on  dial-up  bulletin  boards that
                  protect against any change in the workplace shell.
              o   Pat Hammond uses multiple icons and folders to encourage
                  shared use.   "One of the games  that  our  6  year  old
                  really  likes  is  one of the coloring programs.  I have
                  set it up so two players can take turns.   All it  takes
                  is  Alt-Esc to switch between sessions.  I'm not sure if
                  she can set this up by herself or not, but once it is up
                  she  can  handle  the  switching.     I  have   separate
                  directories  for  each  child's  pictures  and  separate
                  program icons that point to each directory."
              o   One of the really nice things that can be done with OS/2
                  is  setting  up  associations,  special  links   between
                  program objects and data-file objects.  For example, you
                  can  link  the program object for a spreadsheet to every
                  spreadsheet object.  Associations can be  made  by  file
                  type or by file name (including wildcards).  You can set
                  up  *.PCW  for PC Write and *.WKS for spreadsheets.  Now
                  all the user has to do is double click on the data file,
                  and the system opens the program with data file  already
                  loaded -- true object oriented.
                  Each  family  member can have a folder with private data
                  files and won't have to worry about what command or path
                  is needed to start an application.  To work on a  letter
                  file, simply double click on the document.  To work on a
                  spreadsheet, double click.  Similarly, *.X10 can be used
                  for  appliance  controllers to let you "click" a lamp on
                  or off.


              o   From Ray Dixon:  "The AUTOSTART statement will allow you
                  to prevent things from being automatically restarted  at
                  boot  time.  Say your son had about 10 games going under
                  DOS full screens, and he didn't exit them before doing a
                  shutdown.   When you reboot,  if  AUTOSTART=PROGRAMS  is
                  set,  then all 10 copies will be restarted.  You may not
                  want that, as it  can  cause  your  boot  time  to  seem
                  longer.    To prevent this, remove the PROGRAMS from the
                  AUTOSTART statement in CONFIG.SYS."
                       SET AUTOSTART=PROGRAMS,TASKLIST,FOLDERS
              OS/2 has the power and flexibility to work like you  do,  so
              you'll  likely  discover your own setup preferences.  If you
              discover some interesting tips of your own,  please  forward
              them to the author.


CAN'T MICROSOFT WINDOWS DO THAT?

              Yes.    And  No.    Windows 3.1 can likely do any one of the
              applications described in this guide, but it has  difficulty
              doing several at the same time.
              o   WORD  PROCESSING:  Long running tasks can interfere with
                  keyboarding, making text entry painfully slow.  Examples
                  include  distributing  a  fax,  formatting  a  diskette,
                  backing  up your system, down-loading a file from a BBS,
                  or simply printing.    While  performing  any  of  these
                  tasks,   delays   in   Windows  multitasking  can  cause
                  characters to display several seconds  after  you  enter
                  them,  if at all.  The user interface becomes completely
                  unresponsive and you give up and decide to  go  out  for
                  dinner.    With  OS/2,  you  can  have many active tasks
                  running, and the user interface still responds like like
                  a  champ.    You  keep  on  typing   and   admire   your
                  productivity improvement.
              o   SPREADSHEETS:   Your PC-attached CD-ROM drive is playing
                  stereo music through the sound card of your PC when  you
                  start up an Excel macro.  You wonder why the sound stops
                  (and  starts, and stops again...).  It's because Windows
                  does a poor job of multitasking compared to OS/2.   With
                  OS/2, you could have several audio sources piped through
                  the  same  or multiple sound cards while other tasks are
                  running and the music never skips a beat.
              o   GAMES:  Your 12 year old son is playing Space Quest V, a
                  DOS  game  with  impressive  graphics,  animation,   and
                  digital  sound.    The phone rings and it's an in-coming
                  fax.  While receiving the fax, the responsiveness of the
                  game goes down the toilet and your  son  hasn't  a  clue
                  why.   He starts messing around with system settings but
                  even finds that difficult and slow, so he  re-boots  the
                  system.  So much for your fax.
              o   GENERAL PROTECTION FAULT:  You've been working for hours
                  on   a   document,  spreadsheet,  or  presentation  with
                  graphics when you start another task and get the  famous
                  "General   Protection   Fault."     The  Windows  memory
                  protection feature warns you that a program  erroneously
                  accessed  memory  outside  of its own address space, but
                  this time it doesn't give you the advertised  option  of
                  closing that one application because some system control
                  blocks  were changed.   The system is locked up now, and
                  your only option is to re-boot without  the  ability  to
                  save your work.  It has been reported that Windows users
                  tend to get used to re-booting and losing data, but OS/2
                  users  often  run  for  weeks  or  months  without  even
                  shutting  down.    OS/2's  "crash  protection"   is   an
                  advantage for both home and enterprise environments.
              As  a  DOS-extender,  Windows  3.1  adds  some  amazing  new
              function to the 13-year old DOS that it relies on for input,
              output and other system functions.  OS/2, on the other hand,
              is a replacement for DOS (and Windows).   OS/2 was  designed
              for  today's  multitasking environments and provides its own
              system services.  It generally runs Windows applications  as
              fast  or  faster than Windows does and runs them with better
              safety.  Unlike Windows 3.1 or Windows NT, OS/2 lets Windows
              users run  Standard  Mode  and  Enhanced  Mode  applications
              concurrently,   taking  the  full  screen  or  participating
              seemlessly with other windowed applications on the  desktop,
              and  running in a separate session for maximum protection or
              with other Windows  applications  in  a  single  session  to
              conserve   system   resources.     Running  DOS  or  Windows
              applications under  OS/2  has  many  other  advantages  over
              running  them  in  their native environments.  Most of those
              benefits won't be discussed in this paper,  however,  except
              to contrast with what Windows did to extend DOS.
              o   MEMORY  MANAGER:    Windows  provides  a  memory manager
                  function so DOS applications can access more than 640  K
                  of  memory.    OS/2,  on the other hand, doesn't have to
                  contend with the out-dated memory schemes found in  DOS,
                  which  requires  that  programs  be  written  in  64  KB
                  segments (the register size of early Intel  processors).
                  OS/2 improves support for DOS applications with up to 32
                  MB  of  EMS/XMS  memory  and  512  MB of DPMI memory per
                                                                       ___
                  application.   And OS/2 applications are  free  of  page
                  segments with the ability to address memory contiguously
                  and  the  ability  to use 32-bit instructions to exploit
                  your 32-bit hardware.
              o   GRAPHICAL PROGRAM LAUNCHER:   Windows adds  a  graphical
                  user  interface (GUI) to DOS, but OS/2 advances the user
                  interface a generation beyond the GUI found  in  Windows
                  3.1   or  Windows  NT.    OS/2  has  an  object-oriented
                  interface, the WorkPlace Shell, where each icon  on  the
                  "desktop"  represents  an  object  (printer, disk drive,
                  program, folder, file,  etc).    The  metaphor  is  more
                  life-like  and  new  users find it much easier to learn.
                  Even experienced Windows users find OS/2 easier to  use,
                  because  most operations can be completed with one mouse
                  click.  To print a document, simply drag to the  printer
                  instead  of  (in  Windows)  opening the program manager,
                  then  the  word  processor,  then  selecting  File   and
                  Directory  and  File  Name just to open the document and
                  finally selecting Print and Print Location to finish the
                  printing task.   (And don't forget  to  close  the  word
                  processor.)
              o   WINDOWING  TASK SELECTOR:  Windows 3.1 lets users switch
                  back  and  forth  between  running  applications,   even
                  between  DOS  and  Windows  applications, that appear in
                  overlapping  windows.     It  also  includes   ways   of
                  exchanging  information, with Cut & Paste, DDE, and OLE.
                  But multitasking under Windows  is  limited  because  it
                  sits  on  DOS, which was never designed to run more than
                  one  thing  at  a  time.   DOS suffers from a single I/O
                  buffer that forces all I/O operations to  be  serialized
                  (one at a time), and since Windows relies on DOS for its
                  I/O,  Windows  suffers too.   OS/2 on the other hand was
                  designed    specifically    to    support     preemptive
                  multitasking.   This allows applications to better share
                  system resources and all run at the same time.  OS/2 can
                  also support several overlapped I/O  operations  due  to
                  multiple, shared I/O buffers.
                             WHAT ARE YOUR GROWTH OPTIONS?
              There  is  one  last issue with Windows, and that's where do
              you go from  here?    Microsoft  is  already  talking  about
              Chicago (a code name for Windows 4.0), which is not expected
              until  sometime in 1994.  Chicago hopes to solve some of the
              problems  Windows  users  have  today  by   by-passing   DOS
              completely  and  doing its own I/O and by adding support for
              32-bit applications.  To exploit Chicago,  you  will  likely
              have  to  upgrade all of your Windows applications again, as
              you've done in the past going from one release to another.
              With  OS/2,  you  can  run  your  16-bit  DOS  and   Windows
              applications  and  add  new 32-bit applications when you are
              ready.  As in the past, when moving to  new  OS/2  releases,
              your old applications should still run fine because of IBM's
              long-term  commitment  to protecting customer investments in
              hardware, system software, and applications.


OS/2 AWARDS

Over 2 million copies of OS/2 2.0 were sold in its first 9 months, and OS/2 continues to garner international acclaim from the computer industry's leading publications and delighted end users.

Since November, 1992, IBM OS/2 2.0 has won 15 awards from the computer industry's leading U.S trade publications -- PC Magazine, PC Computing, PC World, Information Week, and Corporate Computing -- honoring OS/2 in categories such as technical excellence, most promising new product and best operating system/environment. Specific honors and awards presented to IBM OS/2 2.0 include:

  • PC Magazine - December 22, 1992
"Technical  Excellence" Award Winner, "Operating Systems and Software Standards"
  • InformationWeek - December 22, 1992
"1992 Top Products -- The 10 Most Likely to Succeed"
  • PC Week -- December 28, 1992
"Top Products of '92"
  • PC World - December 1992
"PC Industry  Achievement"  Award  for  "Most  Promising Newcomer, Software"
  • PC/Computing -- December 1992
"Most  Valuable  Product"  (MVP)  Award  for  "Operating System/Environment"
  • Corporate Computing -- January 1993
"Best Buy for 1993"
  • PC Magazine (Italy) -- February 3, 1993
"PC Technology" Award
  • Software noviny (Czechia) -- February, 1993
"Product of the Year 1992"
  • Datamation -- February 15, 1993
"Product of the Year," PC Software category
  • Computer Language -- February 23, 1993
"Jolt Cola" Award for "Product Excellence 1992"
  • PC Magazine (Spain) -- March 1993
"Product of the Year"
  • InfoWorld -- April 26, 1993
"Software Product of the Year"
  • InfoWorld -- April 26, 1993
                  "Overall Product of the Year"(16) (see below)
  • Soft et Micro (France) -- April 1993
                  "1993 Must-Have"
  • Ziff-Davis (Europe) -- 7 June 1993
"Software Excellence Award", "Environment  and  Desktop" category


---

16 The most important thing regarding this award is that it comes from the readers and users, not just the decision of a publisher or committee.


INFORMATION SOURCES

              o   TELEPHONE:    You  can  get  more information on OS/2 by
                  calling IBM at 1-800-3IBM-OS2 for a free  demo  diskette
                  or  to order your copy of OS/2.  They can also refer you
                  to  a  local  PC  dealer  equipped   to   give   you   a
                  demonstration.
              o   WHERE TO FIND OS/2 APPLICATIONS:  The "OS/2 Applications
                  Solutions    Directory,"   lists   thousands   of   OS/2
                  applications from  independent  software  vendors.    To
                  order your copy, call 800-READ-OS2.
              o   FOR  INDEPENDENT VENDORS PROVIDING PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
                  THAT SUPPORT OS/2:  To order "The I.V. League"  catalog,
                  call 800-342-6672.
              o   IBM  COURSEWARE  AND EDUCATION:   Skill Dynamics, an IBM
                  Company, call 800-IBM-TEACh, ext.137.
              o   FAX:    Call  800-IBM-4FAX  and  request  an  index   of
                  documents.    Use  your  touch-tone  phone to request by
                  document number.
              o   BOOKS & MAGAZINES:   Over 35 OS/2 books  are  in  print,
                  with  three  of the top-10 computer books being on OS/2.
                  They range from a paperback-sized "10  Minute  Guide  to
                  OS/2  2.1"  to the larger "OS/2 2.1 Unleashed," which is
                  over 1,000 pages.
                  -   "OS/2 Professional" magazine, by I.F.Computer Media,
                      call 301-770-4OS2 to subscribe.
                  -   "OS/2 Monthly" magazine,  by  JDF  Publishing,  call
                      800-365-2642 to subscribe.
                  -   "OS/2  Computing" magazine, by Miller Freeman, Inc.,
                      call 415-905-2200 to subscribe.
                  -   "OS/2 Developer" magazine, by IBM, call 800-WANT-OS2
                      to subscribe.
              o   ON-LINE INFORMATION:   On-line  documentation  contained
                  within  OS/2  2.1 is so extensive that, even compressed,
                  it takes up 2.5 megabytes of your hard disk.  If it were
                  printed, it would be over 2,000 pages.  With such a vast
                  library of information available, IBM  has  taken  great
                  pains  to  make  it easy to access and navigate through.
                  Helps   are   context-sensitive,   and   often   contain
                  hyper-links to more detail if needed.
              This  is  just  a  small  subset  of  the  many  sources  of
              information on OS/2.


              ORDERING INFORMATION


              The suggested retail price of OS/2 is $249, including all of
              the functions of  DOS  and  Windows  and  more.    During  a
              promotional period (which ends September 15, 1993), however,
              existing DOS users can upgrade for just $99 (CD-ROM version)
              or $119 (diskette version).  OS/2 users can send in a rebate
              coupon worth $30, getting the price down as low as $69!
              To  order your copy today and participate in the promotional
              pricing, call IBM at 1-800-3IBM-OS2.
              In Canada, call 1-800-465-7999.

TRADEMARKS:

              IBM,   OS/2,   WorkPlace   Shell,  Crash  Protection,  Skill
              Dynamics, Multimedia Presentation Manager/2, MMPM/2,  Mwave,
              WindSurfer,  DataFax, PhoneFX, SOM, DSOM, PS/1, PS/2, PS/2E,
              PowerPC, PS/2 TV, SNA, and Rexx are trademarks or registered
              trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.
              Adobe Type Manager is a trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc.
              America Online is  a  registered  service  mark  of  America
              Online, Inc.
              BitFax is a trademark of Bit Software, Inc.
              CompuServe  is  a  registered  trademark  of  the CompuServe
              Corporation.
              DCF/2 is a trademark of Proportional Software.
              DeScribe is a registered trademark of DeScribe, Inc.
              FaxForward is a trademark of Computer  Systems  Integration,
              Inc.
              Fax/PM is a trademark of Microformatic USA.
              Lotus  1-2-3  and  Freelance  are  trademarks  or registered
              trademarks of Lotus Development Corp.
              Home Office is a trademark of Prometheus Products.
              Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.
              Microsoft,  Microsoft  Windows,  Windows  3.1,  Windows  NT,
              Microsoft  Money,  Excel,  OLE  and  Cairo are trademarks or
              registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
              Open+Fax is a trademark of Open+Voice, Inc.
              PFS: Works is a trademark of Spinnaker Software Corp.
              Photo CD is a trademark of Eastman Kodak Company.
              PMfax is a trademark of Keller Group, Inc.
              Prodigy is a trademark of PRODIGY Services Company, Inc.
              Quicken is a trademark of Intuit Corporation.
              Stacker is a trademark of STACK Electronics Inc.
              Sytos Plus and Sytos Rebound are  trademarks  or  registered
              trademarks of Sytron Corporation.
              WinFax is a trademark of Delrina Technology.
              WordPerfect   is   a  registered  trademark  of  WordPerfect
              Corporation.
              486 and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation.