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	Rex Ballard - Director of Electronic Distribution
	http://cnj.digex.net/~rballard

On 26 Nov 1996 laniear@ibm.net wrote:

> In <57clpb$8v@news.Hawaii.Edu>, tholen@galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu (Dave Tholen) writes:
> >Todd Kepus writes:
> >>> Raj Thomas writes:
> >>>> It is interesting that IBM has announced ( at Comdex ) that they are
> >>>> finally abandoning the OS/2 name
> >>> Evidence, please.
> >> There's plenty of postings in the group that give the URL.  
> >I've yet to encounter even one.  Perhaps you could help me out, Todd.
> >Where does IBM state that the OS/2 name will be abandoned?  Don't point
> >me to the reports of a new operating system that will be a superset of
> >OS/2, which hasn't been named yet, or even given a code name.  None of
> >those indicate that the OS/2 name will be abandoned.

When Unix was still under the control of AT&T, IBM turned to OS/2
rather than UNIX.  IBM has had a version of AIX for 486 and Pentium based
machine for several years.  Since AIX runs under the MACH microkernal,
it is relatively simple to add the OS/2 APIs and DLLs to support
coexistant operating systems.  It's similar to what they did with VM/CMS.

IBM stands a better chance of selling PowerPC based machines if they can
wean people off of the Microsoft Platforms.  OS/2 helps people make the
transition away from Windows3.x but doesn't give the robust features that
AIX and X/11 provide.  In terms of the politics within IBM (or DEC for
that matter) there is a substantially higher profit margin in proprietary
operating systems such as MVS, VS/E, or OS/2 than there is in AIX/Unix.

There were also reliability problems with OS/2 2.0 and Warp.  When users
ran multiple diverse applications on the same box, it would often hang and
lock up.  If you "Hit the Big Red Button", you usually lost your desktop
and therefore couldn't restart your machine.  Warp provides a substantial
suite of recovery tools.  IBM has migrated most of the "Old Standby"
functions like "Front End Processing" to RS-6000 running AIX.

Ironically, it is now cheaper to buy a RS-6000 running AIX than it is to
get a Windows NT capable machine and operating system.  Some of the
classing problems of Unix configuration such as runtime extentions are
now resolved (thanks in part to the Linux Community).

> I think what he is referring to is the following:
> 
> > LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1996 NOV 20 (NB) -- By Jacqueline
> > Emigh. IBM plans to build a new client-server operating system
> > (OS) that will serve as a superset of the current OS/2 and new
> > network computing capabilities, Newsbytes has learned.
> > 
> > In a meeting with Newsbytes at Comdex in Las Vegas, John P.
> > Albee, OS/2 Warp Server brand manager, said that the new OS,
> > scheduled for completion in 1998, will combine OS/2 for
> > support of legacy systems with new functionality for
> > client-server net computing.

Again, this is likely to be a hybrid between OS/2 and AIX.
In terms of the economics, there is more potential for gain in the AIX
arena.

> It is strecthing matters to say that IBM said it was abandoning the name OS/2
> but the "drift" is that the new system may not have the OS/2 name, but then
> it could.  How about OS/3?  Nah!

After OS/2 1.x, 2.x, and Warp (3.x), its more likely to be OS/2 4.x
but will have more UNIX/AIX flavor and compatibility.  It would be more of
a superset of AIX.

Rex Ballard.


From rballard@cnj.digex.net Mon Dec 16 03:17:46 1996
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