OS/2 Warp Weekly Newsletter - 1995-09-15
THE OS/2 WARP WEEKLY - A production of PSP Worldwide Marketing Support
Covering information relevant to OS/2 Warp and LAN Server
The 9/15/95 Issue (A real collector's item)
The OS/2 Warp Weekly and OS/2 Warp Monthly Newsletters are available on the Internet at http://www.austin.ibm.com/pspinfo/newsletters.html
Reiswig Conference on Compuserve a Huge Success
Lee Reiswig's online chat on Compuserve, sponsored by PC-WEEK and held September 6, was very well received by the computing community. Here is a brief excerpt:
Q: Could you offer a synopsis of the comments you had intended to give during the Windows Solutions conference?
A:
- "I was going to talk about the 32-bit operating system coming of age. It's been a dramatic two weeks for the computer industry, as expectation and anticipation are finally fulfilled, and end users get their hands on Windows 95. The ones that have been able to install it will get taste of the power and connections that OS/2 users have relied on for years.
- The lessons we've learned from those years of development were the core messages for my keynote. The main lesson: a 16-bit mentality won't work in the 32-bit world. Delivering incremental improvement is not enough. In this "new" world, enterprise and power users want proven software. They work in an established, heterogeneous computing environment and want their different software and hardware, old and new, to work well together. All users want the ability to use the solution that best meets their needs, which doesn't necessarily come from a single provider. They are starting to use a new breed of applications, that are collaborative and connected and customizable, versus more and more features packed into an office suite.
- The 32-bit world is a world where success depends on the ability to choose. Bank of Boston chose Microsoft Money for Windows as its solution for providing online banking and bill-paying services for customers at home. It chose OS/2 Warp for a mission-critical client/server environment that will allow tellers and bankers in all of its branches across the U.S. to give their customers state-of-the art, personalized service.
- Microsoft is slowly, surely creating an environment that denies customers and developers the ability to choose anything but Microsoft software. Some think that's smart marketing. I think it's impossible: customers will continue to choose software that does what they need and works with what they have. IBM's software group is focused on delivering open, standards-based, multi-platform software that plugs into that 32-bit kind of world."
The complete transcript of this session may be downloaded from the PC WEEK Forum on ZD Net/CompuServe Edition. To get there, type GO PCWEEK. To join ZD Net/CompuServe Edition, GO ZDNET. Permission is granted to IBM Corporation by Ziff-Davis Interactive to distribute this transcript on specific IBM-sponsored online sites.
Why I Chose OS/2 (Fifth in a Series)
Why are people choosing OS/2 Warp instead of Windows? These answers, which come from a wide range of computer users, cut through the hype.
- Because of its Application Support
Virgil Pittman CIO Fireman's Fund Insurance Co.
"We needed to integrate our mission critical applications with off-the- shelf software in an industrial-strength, client/server environment and OS/2 was the one operating system that could pull it all together for us."
BOTTOM LINE: OS/2 Warp with its Win-OS/2 capability provides memory management and multitasking benefits to DOS, Windows and OS/2 applications.
- Because of its Productivity
James Troxell Vice President Eddie Elias Enterprises
"Because OS/2 Warp is integrated with my desktop, cutting and pasting and printing and faxing is really easy. I can actually grab something off the Internet and fax it immediately, without ever copying it. That kind of response time is really appreciated by my clients."
BOTTOM LINE: Applications work in concert on OS/2 Warp's desktop automatically because of its object-oriented technology.
Fona, the largest retailer in Denmark and one of the largest in Scandinavia, has decided to promote only OS/2 Warp for the rest of the year. Fona will not mention Windows 95 in any of their advertising.
The news hit the front page of the largest newspaper in Denmark on September 6, under the headline: "Fona Boycotts Windows 95." That newspaper was handed out to everyone visiting the biggest computer fair this year in Denmark
Computerworld Admits Mistakes in OS/2 Review
Computerworld's September 11 cover story which compared OS/2 Warp and Windows 95 was rife with mistakes. In response to complaints from readers, the magazine's Editor-in-Chief, Bill Laberis, posted the following retraction on various OS/2 forums:
- We screwed up.
- And that is likely to be the headline on my editorial the week of Sept. 18 as I write about the problems and issues swirling around our page 1 piece on Sept. 11 comparing OS/2 and Windows 95.
- To put it briefly, we did not adequately follow our own printed guidelines for quality assurance in hatching such product comparisons. The result was a comparison that had an obvious inaccuracy, for starters, about OS/2's support for long file names. In addition, because we did not follow our own procedures for quality assurance, we cannot fully stand behind what we printed and need to revisit the product comparison anew.
- This is in no way to impugn the individual reviewer, who pretty much did as he was guided to do by our editors here at Computerworld. We just plain screwed up, what more can I say?
- We have other procedures and rules in effect here, one of which states that we will make prompt and complete correction of errors. This we will do starting with my editorial next week. Then the issue of the 25th of September will contain a front page reference to a full page of letters from some of the many angry readers who have written us about this comparison.
- Finally, and this is most crucial to me, we will make arrangements for a new product comparison between Windows 95 and OS/2, to run some time later this fall once we complete the review - this time in accordance with our guidelines and also up to Computerworld standards.
IBM's official response to the original Computerworld article is available on the Internet at http://www.austin.ibm.com/pspinfo/nwsresp1.html
OS/2 Warp Server Beta Garners More Accolades from the Press
Continuing OS/2 Warp Server Beta's impressive run of positive reviews from the press, here are some more choice quotes:
"IBM officials characterized OS/2 Warp Server as a 'one-stop' business solution that will allow enterprises to selectively install software in order to configure a simple file and print server or a complex application server."
"I like the idea a lot. I can tell you from our experience with the bundling of products in OS/2 Warp Connect, installation is a dream," said David Dupre, an OS/2 user and associate systems programmer at Provident Life and Accident Insurance, in Chattanooga, Tenn. "If they can do the same for the server product, there couldn't be a more welcome solution of OS/2 sites."
IBM SHIPS OS/2 WARP SERVER BETA InfoWorld, Aug. 21, 1995, Jason Pontin and Paul Krill
"We can't wait to get it," said George Szatkowski, senior technical support specialist at Metra railroad in Chicago. "OS/2 and LAN Server have been remarkably feature-rich and stable products."
"IBM has made OS/2 Warp Server a total operating system and network operating system package; with [Microsoft Corp's] Windows NT and Netware, you'd pay extra for some of these services," Bob Sakakeeny, analyst at Aberdeen Group. "If you're already a LAN Server or OS/2 Warp customer, you'd be crazy to migrate to another network operating system platform."
OS/2 WARP SERVER BETA SENDS USERS INTO ORBIT ComputerWorld, Aug. 21, 1995, Laura DiDio
"OS/2 Warp Server's crash protection, multitasking capabilities and ability to support applications based on a variety of desktop operating systems could make the IBM offering an attractive applications server," said Rob Enderle, an analyst with Data quest, Inc., in San Jose, CA.
IBM PREPARES ITS NEW NOS CONTENDER, Network World, Aug. 28, 1995, Kevin Fogarty
"OS/2 Warp Server's unified installation and 'everything but the kitchen sink' feature set make this amalgam a worthy competitor to Microsoft Corp's Windows NT."
"...a very capable network operating system that will work well in both small and large installations."
IBM READIES SALVO VS NT IN NOS WARS, PC Week, Sept. 11, 1995, William Katz
UniMaint: A Bundle of Practical OS/2 Utilities
SofTouch Systems is now offering its UniMaint System Utilities pack - a very practical toolset for OS/2 users. The software is an INI file editor, and is able to run a series of tests to find and correct obsolete references to files, paths and old entries. The software was favorably reviewed in the September 11 issue of InfoWorld.
Correction
The OS/2 Warp promotional postcards described in last week's newsletter were mailed only to U.S. retailers, and not to retailers in Canada.
Warp'd Humor
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