(Excerpts from a message dated 10-05-99, Sean Dennis to Murray Lesser)

Hi Sean--

SD>OK, how many people you know that have a 80186?  I know my history. 
  >I'd think that most people in this echo would know I was 
  >talking about a 386 and above. Maybe next time I say 
  >something, I'll break everything down to the lowest common
  >denominator for people like you who assume that I don't know what
  >I'm talking about.  I've been involved with computers well over half
  >my life (and I'm only 27).  I know that OS/2 won't run on a 8086 or
  >80186.  Please.  Don't insult me like that.

    Sorry.  No insult intended.  I guess I was having a bad day and took
it out on you.  BTW, your longevity claim isn't very impressive.  There
are several of us on this echo who have been programming computers since
long before you were born.  Besides, longevity doesn't guarantee wisdom.

 ML> The thing that the doomsayers really are saying (although many of
 ML> them obviously don't know it!) is that they (the SOHO users) have
 ML> been left out of IBM's future plans for OS/2.  They are correct!! 
 ML> OS/2 was 

SD>No joking?  Hmmm... maybe there are those of us who realize that OS/2
  >was never really ment to be a SOHO client and that the Warp client
  >series was a 'test' market for OS/2.

    You are right about the original intended customer set for OS/2.
When first announced (OS/2 1.0 in 1987), it was described as an
industrial-strength operating system for large commercial users.  But
you are wrong in your statement "that the Warp client series was a
'test' market for OS/2."  The first version of OS/2 appeared seven years
before the first "Warp client" did.

    IBN made what it thought was a valid marketing attempt to push the
first Warp version (OS/2 3.0) to the SOHO market when that version was
first released (1994).  There have been many theories expressed on this
echo (including a grand conspiracy theory) as to why that effort was
abandoned.  I know little of the real story, but my own pet opinion is
that IBM finally learned that it doesn't know how to deal with a
nonprofessional individual user :-(.  I base this opinion, in part, on
those terrible 1994/5 TV ads for OS/2.

SD>You're talking about application prices?  Gee, StarOffice is free. 
  >That's a nice application.  90% of the software I run for OS/2 is
  >either free or a very cheaply-priced shareware.  Not all of us go
  >searching for the big-buck IBM stuff when you can look on the web
  >and find something identical in function for a lot less.

    I used the current prices for IBM "professional" OS/2 software only
as an indication of IBM's view of its current market for OS/2.  If you
look in the latest IBM Software catalog (mine arrived yesterday) you
will find that IBM is making some of its OS/2 software available only to
customers who have a "Passport Advantage" contract (included in this
category is the OS/2 variant "Workspace On-Demand").  Elsewhere in that
same catalog, it is stated that a "Passport Advantage" contract saves
the customer money if that customer is running 10 or more desktop
machines.  This doesn't fit many SOHO users that I know!

    An early version of Star Office (called "IBM Works" at the time) was
distributed (free) with the Warp 3 Bonus Pak.  There has been other free
software for OS/2 available from IBM (EWS programs).  None of the "free"
or "shareware" application programs for OS/2 that I have seen are what
one might call "mission critical" software suitable for commercial use.
And not all "identical in function" to IBM software can be obtained from
other sources.  Where else can you find a PL/I compiler for OS/2?  (US
list price $2,999, although I got the current v 2.1 from IBM for much
less!)  I, too, use several shareware application programs (all
registered).  But very few large commercial concerns will use shareware,
largely because they want to be as certain as possible that the provider
of the software will still be around to fix it when.  And large
commercial concerns (IBM's target market for OS/2) don't mind paying
$2,999 (and up) a crack for "mission critical" software designed to meet
"enterprise" requirements.

SD>Do you think that I slapped OS/2 in without reading up on it and
  >studying it first?  Do me a favor and don't try to correct me when I
  >know what I'm talking about.

    OK.  But how am I supposed to know when you know what you are
talking about?

    Regards,

        --Murray

___
 * MR/2 2.25 #120 * Watching for speed bumps on the Information Highwy

--- Maximus/2 2.02