From: Mark Kovarski <kovarski@zooid.guild.org>
Subject: A look at 1992 - Continued
Organization: The Zoo of Ids
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 21:47:42 GMT


Journal:   PC Week  August 31 1992 v9 n35 p1(2)
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IBM and Novell Inc. have renegotiated their landmark February 1991 
agreement to expand areas of cooperation and speed the release of 
jointly developed technology.

After several months of discussions, the two companies last month 
redesigned their base agreement, updating and streamlining their product
licensing, distribution and support efforts.

Officials also added about six new development projects, mainly in the 
areas of distributed computing and systems management, said Jack Blount,
Novell's corporate vice president of strategic relations in Austin, 
Texas.

"Both companies made a significant effort over the past several months 
to reach a contract and be more broad and flexible," Blount said.

IBM and Novell's initial agreement, signed 18 months ago, outlined 15
development initiatives to integrate Novell's leading NetWare LAN 
operating system with IBM's desktop, LAN and mainframe environments.  
Those initiatives have since escalated to 35.  "We've signed an average 
of one new work initiative every month," said Blount.

Among the new areas of cooperation is joint work on the Open Software
Foundation's (OSF's) Distributed Computing Environment.  IBM urged 
Novell to join OSF, and the two companies are working together to define
an interoperability strategy between NetWare and IBM's forthcoming 
distributed environment.  Users of IBM's own LAN Server operating system
will be given migration utilities for the new environment.

The two companies are also working on the ability to remotely configure,
install and distribute NetWare from the mainframe, better manipulation 
of NetWare from IBM's NetView mainframe management system and NetWare 
support for IBM's Advanced Peer-to-Peer Network protocol.

Although such efforts would not be part of the current agreement, Novell
hopes to work with IBM on areas such as WAN technology, mobile computing
and operating-system software being developed at Taligent, the joint 
venture between IBM and Apple Computer Inc.  Novell is also still 
working to strike a deal under which IBM would sell Novell's DR DOS 
desktop operating system, Blount said.

IBM is now reselling more than 50 Novell products worldwide, up from 13 
at the deal's outset.  IBM's NetWare product sales have contributed 
between $5 million and $10 million quarterly to Novell's total sales.  
IBM also resells NetWare directly to customers through a toll-free 
number, which has disgruntled some NetWare resellers.

The new base agreement loosens some constraints and more clearly defines
areas in the original agreement.  No royalty arrangements were changed,
according to Joseph Damassa, IBM's manager of LAN systems marketing in
Somers, N.Y.

"As new things emerge and we have a better understanding of areas like
distributed computing and mobile computing, then we've got to go in and
clarify the agreement," said Damassa.  "It's one of the signs that this
relationship is alive and growing."

For example, the initial agreement made no provision for jointly 
developed technology to be released early to Novell and IBM customers 
for testing. Now, both companies can quickly roll out prerelease 
technology.

That test cycle should help speed the availability of stable, final 
products -- something Novell and IBM could have used in development of 
the NetWare Requester for OS/2 2.0, which was delivered late.

"The whole NetWare OS/2 2.0 support and testing needs to have been done
better," said Tim Hudson, president of Fourth Wave Technologies Inc., a
NetWare Platinum reseller in Troy, Mich.

The renewed agreement also gives IBM and Novell clearer rights to each
other's source code.

Novell and IBM have delivered on many of their product promises -- 
although not necessarily on time -- and have also shipped products or 
enhancements that were not specified in the initial agreement.

But there still is much work to do to fulfill the agreement's promises. 
Much of IBM's integration work has shifted to NetWare 4.0 for OS/2 2.0, 
due later this year.  And IBM also plans to ship an updated LAN Server, 
version 3.0, which will include client software that allows users to log
on to both NetWare and LAN Server.

Novell, for its part, hopes IBM's ongoing reorganization of its PC 
business will deepen the relationship between the two companies.

"They [IBM] are making some changes that should help give us a little 
more visibility," said Ray Noorda, chairman, CEO and president of Novell
in Provo, Utah.  "There are parts of IBM that we're in reasonably good 
shape with and others where we're not in reasonably good shape."
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Journal: EDGE: Work-Group Computing Report  August 24 1992 v3 n118 p4(1)
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At IBM's request, Media Vision has built Pro AudioSpectrum software 
drivers for OS/2 2.0 using Multimedia Presentation Manager/2 (MMPM/2), 
IBM's multimedia extensions.

Users of OS/2 2.0 on any IBM-compatible computer can now take advantage 
of high quality 16-bit sound for business and entertainment applications
using Pro AudioSpectrum adapters.  In addition, existing and future OS/2
multimedia applications using MMPM/2 will support Media Vision's Pro 
AudioSpectrum.

"Sound is a very important part of the multimedia computing experience. 
It adds a whole new dimension to business, entertainment, and 
educational applications," said Lois Dimpfel, director of IBM's Personal
Systems Programming Center in Boca Raton, Fla.

"Our users demand the highest quality of sound.  By supporting Media 
Vision's audio adapters, we enable a large existing and future install 
base of users to take advantage of OS/2 multimedia applications."

Media Vision's Pro AudioSpectrum technology is a series of complex 
computer algorithms that is built into personal computer hardware and 
used in applications software development.  It offers "true 16-bit" or 
compact disc-quality sound, which is the same level of sound fidelity as
has been adopted by IBM in its previously introduced Ultimedia 
multimedia system.

Pro AudioSpectrum was first introduced in mid-1991.  Today, it is 
available from Media Vision in the form of add-in sound cards, 
multimedia subsystems, and the Spectrum chipset which can be used to add
sound when building new personal computers.

Recently, a number of leading software and hardware companies announced 
their endorsement of Pro AudioSpectrum and indicated that they are using
Pro AudioSpectrum technology in their products.

"We are very pleased to be working with IBM," said Paul Jain, president 
and chief executive officer of Media Vision.  "Their support, coupled 
with the wide industry acknowledgment that we have received from other 
hardware and software companies, underlines Pro AudioSpectrum's market 
position."

Media Vision's mission is to popularize multimedia by offering 
multimedia solutions at affordable prices.  Media Vision's products 
range from systems and printed add-in cards to chips based on emerging 
multimedia standards for mainstream personal computers.

Media Vision Inc. is a venture capital funded company based in Fremont, 
CA. The company's founders successfully formed two earlier ventures, 
Video 7 and Paradise Systems, which were responsible for the early 
popularization of color graphics technologies in personal computers.  
The company was founded in early 1990.
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Journal:   Newsbytes  August 20 1992
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****Windows & 0S/2: 150 0S/2 Apps Shipping, 1000 More Due 08/20/92 
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 20 (NB) -- A total of 160 OS/2 
applications are shipping now, and 1000 will be delivered by the end of 
this year, IBM announced during a press briefing at the Windows & OS/2 
Conference, now going on in Boston.

In the meeting, IBM marked the applications achievement by presenting 
copies of the operating system to four early developers -- Micrografx, 
Spinnaker, Corel, and Proportional Software -- and also celebrated a 
recently reached delivery milestone.  Similar software presentations 
went out to two early users -- Caterpillar Corporation and the 
University of Missouri School of Journalism -- and IBM set off a chain 
of 20,000 dominoes to represent the first 1 million copies of OS/2 2.0.

Officials of IBM and the other organizations stressed the wide range of 
users and applications for OS/2 2.0, as well as the extensive beta 
testing that went into the product and its superior performance over 
earlier releases.  Of the first 1 million copies shipped, only 5% have 
been giveaways, stated Fernand Sarrat, head of 0S/2 marketing for IBM.  
"As numbers go in this industry, these are some of the most solid you'll
find," he noted.

Beta testing on 2.0 has involved 100,000 users at 30,000 sites, numbers 
far higher than for earlier versions, emphasized Lee Reiswig, IBM's 
chief  of OS/2 development.  In addition, he asserted, 2.0 contains 10 
times  fewer bugs than Version 1.2, and five times fewer bugs than 
Version 1.3.  "OS/2 1.2," acknowledged Reiswig, "is an example of a 
product we'd like to have back."

At first, IBM experienced difficulties in attracting third-party 
developers for 2.0, suggested John Soyring, IBM's chief of software 
development programs.  "We started out on our knees," he remarked.  As 
of April, 1991, only 13 outside vendors had committed to developing 
applications.  By June, 1991, that number stood at only 30, and by 
August of last year, at 60 to 70, according to Soyring.  "But now, 
our biggest problem is in answering the phone," he stated.

Vendors that have committed to developing applications range from major
players in the software market to small companies, said Soyring.  Lotus 
is porting its entire line, WordPerfect is porting its flagship word 
processor in along with other products, and Borland is developing an 
edition of Object Vision for OS/2, he elaborated.

Vendors at the briefing gave a variety of reasons for supporting OS/2.  
"OS/2 fundamentally competes with DOS, not Windows," said George 
Grayson, president of Micrografx, a company that, like many of OS/2's 
developers, is producing applications for both platforms.  An OS/2 
version of Picture Publisher will be delivered this fall, he added.

The 32-bit architecture of Version 2.0 is giving a 25% performance boost
to Corel Draw, said Susan Vericchia, OS/2 product manager for Corel.  In
addition, the company expects that customers will make use of the 
system's multitasking capabilities to print and open and close files in 
the background.  The OS/2 version of Corel Draw will ship this week, 
Vericchia vowed.

Spinnaker sees OS/2 as a good fit for PFX Works, an application that 
will be available for Version 2.0 in September, David Seuss, company 
president, told the reporters.  The market for PFX Works consists of 
home office and small business users, who tend to be early adopters of 
new technologies, he explained.

Max Eideswick, president of Proportional Software, a maker of tools for
compression and functions, said his company finds OS/2 useful for
applications requiring high performance, multitasking, and peer-to-peer
networking.  "I'm an old computer guy, and I can tell you that OS/2 has
power," he stressed.

At the University of Missouri, OS/2 has been highly effective on a 
300-node network for students and faculty, attested a professor from 
the Journalism School.  The network is used not only in the classroom, 
but at a newspaper, TV station and radio station run by the school.

IBM's Sarrat set off the domino chain just after the awards ceremony, in
an area right off the exhibition floor.  IBM considered using 1 million
dominoes, but a number that high would have taken up a prohibitive 
60,000 square feet of floor space, said a representative of Domino F/X, 
the group that performed the hands- on work of building the chain.

As it was, the 20,000 dominoes took two days to set up in a 
painstakingly designed, railroad-type configuration that incorporated a 
large logo in IBM blue and a series of detours, including a spiral.
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Journal:   PC Week  August 17 1992 v9 n33 pS1(2)
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....."[Microsoft's] got a lot of work to do still," said Richard Smith, 
president of DOS extender and tool vendor Phar Lap Software Inc., in 
Cambridge, Mass. "They've done all the fun stuff, but the hard part 
is [NT] compatibility with the world."

The version of NT that was distributed to developers last month at
Microsoft's Win32 Professional Developers Conference in San Francisco 
was missing a number of important features -- including a stable version
of the NT File System.  It had the ability to run only a limited number 
of DOS and Windows 3.x applications.

Microsoft spent considerable effort during the 10-month Windows 3.1 beta
cycle to get 3.1 to run Windows 3.0 applications, but in the end shipped
the product without full support for a long list of Windows 3.0 
applications. Microsoft's current plan calls for only a three-month beta
cycle for NT.

Because Windows NT uses a new device-driver architecture, Microsoft also
needs to write, or get hardware developers to write, an entirely new set
of device drivers for displays and other peripherals.

The company did, however, deliver a large set of device drivers in the 
July release and plans to add more before the product is released.  A 
new set of network drivers will also be needed for networks such as 
Novell Inc.'s NetWare and Banyan Systems Inc.'s VINES.

Company officials said that, if necessary, they will delay Windows NT 
until it is solid.  "We'll ship it when it's ready," said David Thacher,
group product manager for Windows NT for the Redmond, Wash., firm.
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Journal:   C Users Journal  July 1992 v10 n7 p93(1)
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WATCOM announced Version 9.0 of its Professional Languages line, which 
uses the 32-bit capabilities of Intel's x86 chips, adds support for 
OS/2 v2.0, and adds features for GO Corp.'s PenPoint system.  
WATCOM C9.0/386 is an ANSI standard and SAA compatible 32-bit optimizing
compiler, with a comprehensive toolset including a debugging system, 
profiler, linker, make utility, and other tools.  New features include 
run-time performance improvements, additional Microsoft compatibility 
extensions, increased debugger capacity, 486 optimizations, WVIDEO 
support for PenPoint, and embedded assembly-language support.

WATCOM C9.0/386 and FORTRAN-77/386 support the following platforms: 32-b
DOS with DOS extenders, OS/2 v2.0, 32-bit Windows, AutoCAD ADS and ADI, 
embedded systems (with third-party tools).  OEM Versions of C9.0/386 are
available from Novell, as Network C for NLMs SDK, and GO Corp.'s WATCOM 
for PenPoint.

WATCOM C9.0/386 is priced at $895; FORTRAN-77/386 is also priced at $895
Upgrades from earlier versions are available directly from WATCOM.  32-b
system buyers can add the 16-bit version for $99 under WATCOM's delta pa
program.  For additional information, contact WATCOM, 415 Phillip Street
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3X2, (800) 265-4555; FAX (519) 747-4971.

Journal:   Computing Canada  July 6 1992 v18 n14 p27(1)
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Favorable early reviews and a loyal IBM customer base is putting new 
life into OS/2, reports Cambridge, Mass.-based research firm Forrester 
Research, Inc.

Although the operating system at one time had been all but left for 
dead, Forrester reports that 42 per cent of 100 Fortune 1000 companies 
interviewed say interest in OS/2 2.0 is rising.

In the report called OS/2: The Resurrection, users cited OS/2 2.0's
communications/networking features, multi-tasking capabilities and its
suitability for downsizing core business applications as reasons for 
using the operating system.

Respondents also indicated that despite Window's huge market share, 
problems with unrecoverable application errors and crashes are creating 
new interest in OS/2.

According to William Bluestein, senior analyst, computing strategy 
research at Forrester, "OS/2 2.0 is alive.  IBM now has a jump on 
Microsoft's Windows NT and the Unix variants from Sun, Next, SCO and 
Univel."

Bluestein says the game for OS/2 is in the new "super client" market 
which is driven by the migration of business applications away from the 
host and onto PC-based local-area networks.

"Rather than fight Microsoft over the low-end spreadsheet and word 
processing desktops, IBM needs to take advantage of these emerging 
connectivity intensive applications," he adds.

The success of OS/2 2.0 will force Microsoft to reposition Windows NT. 

Forrester predicts that by 1995, NT will only account for 10 per cent of
the "super client" operating system market.  While Gates and company 
expect NT to be instantly anointed king of the high-end hill, the 
company will have to combat product delays, bloated hardware 
requirements, and the slow emergence of the "super client" market, 
Forrester says.

This will prompt Microsoft to re-work DOS 6.0 and Windows 4.0 to include
32-bit memory addressing, the Win32 API, and better "pseudo" 
multi-tasking. This revised strategy will be unveiled as a more gradual 
migration to a 32-bit operating system.

The reshuffling will lead to NT's new role as a server product and 
operating system for non-Intel clients.

Rapid developments

The arrival of competition in the system software market will force IBM 
and Microsoft to accelerate enhancements to current PC operating 
systems.  Just as competition forced Intel to cut prices and accelerate 
its product development, the system software landscape will similarly 
change.

Forrester expects to see rapid improvements to ease of use and 
installation, and the adoption of object-oriented technology, 3D 
graphics and network naming and directory services.

Bill Fournier, director, syndicated studies, Evans Research agrees that 
the same situation more or less exists in Canada.

OS/2 Version 2.0 began shipping in the spring of this year at a 
suggested price of $199 although it can be purchased for significantly 
less than that, says Fournier.

But he sees a much broader market for OS/2 Version 2.0 than just the 
high-end corporate computing environment.

"OS/2 is a great desktop tool," says Fournier, citing its ability to 
handle multi-tasking of DOS applications and its ability to run Windows 
as primary benefits.

"They should be selling it (OS/2) to everybody," including the low-end.

Fournier says although users require as much as six MB to run OS/2 and 
it sounds like a lot, decreasing prices for the PC itself and storage 
makes this less and less of an issue.
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Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy